Illegal Immigrant [12/03/2023] CH19+20 [Important Subscribestar Update]

[Mee]

On 12/8/2022 at 2:29 PM, Kahlez said:

Glad to read more of it. Hopefully Dawn learns to at least in public be more careful or she maybe will find out that she was really lucky so far. Not that there are still other problems like that LPS surely will asked question about her not being officially adopted yet.

Maybe James and Katherine need to pull her aside at some point to have a chat about mean old Mr. Consequences...

On 12/8/2022 at 3:28 PM, Panther Cub said:

Ooooh. methinks Katherine did not think that that would be an issue with little Dawn. Maybe she figured Dawn prefers the big, thick, more cardboard-y ones back in her home dimension?

 

(Makes me wonder what would happen if someone showed her a freakin' Lovecraft compendium?)

(Ooooh! Or maybe something by Stephen King? Actually, I wouldn't mind cracking open one of those again...)

As kind as Katherine can be, sometimes her blinders can really warp her honest intentions. If Dawn somehow got ahold of that sort of literature, I could imagine ten different rules being ratified on the spot just to keep it from happening again... Or who knows? Maybe she can read whatever she wants and this is all a big misunderstanding? Right?

On 12/8/2022 at 5:54 PM, TerranV said:

Lovecraft is a good start but why not A Song of Ice and Fire?

Seriously though a double chapter?! Awesome! 

I usually find myself siding with Dawn but her vendetta against delicious eggs is a mark against her in my book!

Of course it seems Katherine is still incredibly difficult when it comes to talking to her. Dawn still seems to stick to being obstinate in the face of what she doesn't like. 

I do hope a mutual love of books leads to some bonding between them though. 

Of course Grace is unknowingly stepping on a landmine.

Clearly a racist rule to prevent Littles from furthering their educations and finding greater ways to oppose the system.

(In truth, I may not be the fondest of straight eggs myself... I do require something to go with it...)

Yeah, Katherine and Dawn both continue to be stubborn, albeit one of them less maliciously as well as with societal backing... I'm sure common ground exists for them, they'll just need to dig pretty deep to find it. I can definitely imagine some prejudice charged in those rules... 

On 12/8/2022 at 9:56 PM, TheJ said:

I just hope Katherine eventually realises that Dawn needs something more mentally stimulating than actual children's toys, shows and books. If she doesn't meet Dawn halfway, she and James are going to be stuck with an unhappy little, and I'm going to get more and more angry on Dawn's behalf! 

I'm hoping they'll figure something out... Then again, it may not be something Dawn has to adapt to so much since she's supposed to be going home soon, after all! Thanks for reading and commenting!

1 hour ago, kerry said:

I agree completely. I love this story, but I think that at some point (soon) Katherine needs to start to realize that this Little can think like an Amazon. It may be too much to ask that she start treating Dawn a bit more like an adult, but I do think she needs to recognize that there is a stark difference between this Little and the young child she was hoping for. If she truly "loves" Dawn, she should be aware that there is more to her than can be accounted for by her prejudices.

(Pun sort of intended) It's the little things that'll keep the ship afloat, I'd imagine. There's too many big obstacles I think that are completely or next-to totally non-negotiable at this point that what few things she can control are going to become those new big deals to her. Coincidentally, I can imagine the Amazons in charge of her being more lenient with the things that don't matter as much in the bigger picture. No sleepers at bedtime? Fine. No diapers? Why are you being so silly?

[Panther Cub]

51 minutes ago, Mee said:

As kind as Katherine can be, sometimes her blinders can really warp her honest intentions. If Dawn somehow got ahold of that sort of literature, I could imagine ten different rules being ratified on the spot just to keep it from happening again... Or who knows? Maybe she can read whatever she wants and this is all a big misunderstanding? Right?

 

I for one hope so! Otherwise Dawn might do something... drastic! Dramatic Soap Opera Organ Music

Hmmm could Katherine actually make it through something as... stuffy as Lovecraft? GAH! I just gotsta see her find a copy from Dawn's home dimension and give it a read, I just gotsta!

(Or get a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies!) ?

[BabySerenity]

On 12/10/2022 at 9:55 PM, Mee said:

Maybe James and Katherine need to pull her aside at some point to have a chat about mean old Mr. Consequences...

As kind as Katherine can be, sometimes her blinders can really warp her honest intentions. If Dawn somehow got ahold of that sort of literature, I could imagine ten different rules being ratified on the spot just to keep it from happening again... Or who knows? Maybe she can read whatever she wants and this is all a big misunderstanding? Right?

(In truth, I may not be the fondest of straight eggs myself... I do require something to go with it...)

Yeah, Katherine and Dawn both continue to be stubborn, albeit one of them less maliciously as well as with societal backing... I'm sure common ground exists for them, they'll just need to dig pretty deep to find it. I can definitely imagine some prejudice charged in those rules... 

I'm hoping they'll figure something out... Then again, it may not be something Dawn has to adapt to so much since she's supposed to be going home soon, after all! Thanks for reading and commenting!

(Pun sort of intended) It's the little things that'll keep the ship afloat, I'd imagine. There's too many big obstacles I think that are completely or next-to totally non-negotiable at this point that what few things she can control are going to become those new big deals to her. Coincidentally, I can imagine the Amazons in charge of her being more lenient with the things that don't matter as much in the bigger picture. No sleepers at bedtime? Fine. No diapers? Why are you being so silly?

I think James and Katherine at least need to be more open and honest as to how their society sees littles and what all could happen should Kayla keep causing problems!! That is partly why Kayla keeps causing trouble for them because she’s being left out and not treated as an adult! Even though there are reasons now why she has to be in diapers etc! Kayla only sees it as them treating her like a baby and not the reason behind it due to LPS being called into question! So she’ll continue acting out her frustrations! Instead of acting more behaved! And going along for her own good!! The spanking and timeouts would have been unnecessary!! However, if their intentions are to break her down through harsh discipline and overwhelming love? They’ll still need to explain certain harsh realities about their world and sounded like James had started to try to? Though Katherine warned against it!! Which could have solved a lot of issues though actually done more harm than good!! 

Traumawise 

With that being said I do hope more is written soon!!

[Panther Cub]

1 hour ago, BabySerenity said:

I think James and Katherine at least need to be more open and honest as to how their society sees littles and what all could happen should Kayla keep causing problems!! That is partly why Kayla keeps causing trouble for them because she’s being left out and not treated as an adult! Even though there are reasons now why she has to be in diapers etc! Kayla only sees it as them treating her like a baby and not the reason behind it due to LPS being called into question! So she’ll continue acting out her frustrations! Instead of acting more behaved! And going along for her own good!! The spanking and timeouts would have been unnecessary!! However, if their intentions are to break her down through harsh discipline and overwhelming love? They’ll still need to explain certain harsh realities about their world and sounded like James had started to try to? Though Katherine warned against it!! Which could have solved a lot of issues though actually done more harm than good!! 

Traumawise 

With that being said I do hope more is written soon!!

Uhm... Who is Kayla? Are you talking about Dawn?

[BabySerenity]

2 hours ago, Panther Cub said:

Uhm... Who is Kayla? Are you talking about Dawn?

Good catch yes Dawn 

[Panther Cub]

Just re-read this awesome story! Can't wait to see how Dawn makes it through the day at her Momm-- er Katherine's shift!

[Mee]

18 - Propaganda Prison

“What do you mean, ‘play with the books?’,” Dawn barely managed to hold back a scoff. “I’m here to read them like everyone else!”

“And you can go read lots of fun stories in here?” Grace deflected and redirected with her finger. “I bet if you gave them a chance, you’d be really surprised how good they are!”

“And I want a book that isn’t made from cardboard or more pictures than actual words,” Dawn frowned. “What kind of rule even is that, anyway? Ka–” she stammered then stopped, but Grace was being patient enough to allow her to continue. Let the Little finish her tantrum. “Mmm…Mommy,” fucking christ! “--She didn’t say anything about a rule like that.”

“You can always ask her when she comes back, sweetheart, but it’s a lot safer for you in here. Big kid books are too big and hard to read, anyway,” she waved her hand and just a few more years brushed off Dawn’s shoulders. “Come on,” Grace stood back up, but not before taking Dawn’s hand. “Let’s go give those books another peek, alright? Mommy said you liked reading, didn’t she?”

Reading stuff that’s actually interesting… Not whatever baby books that are in here…!

Thus a second round of perusing had begun, only now Dawn was chained and shackled to her tour guide. “Let’s see…!” Grace hummed with infectious enthusiasm that Dawn was thankfully vaccinated against. The Amazon was slouched over just to see the top shelf of the shorter furniture, and Dawn was trying to look anywhere but Grace tried to call attention to.

“Oou, how about this one?” Dawn didn’t watch, but she could hear the plastic laminated cover slide out from the crowd of crazy literature. The librarian tapped into her secondary skill as a nursery school teacher, because slowly and carefully she enunciated the cover, “Tumbly Tiger’s Big Adventure,” then held the front of it out to Dawn. “That sounds like a fun one, right?”

As a fun fact, at least for standard literature, the best stories were the ones that were actual good stories. Tales that could leverage basic devices and spin them as something new or synthesize with totally new ideas altogether. Words can bring the imagination to life and the true imagery is born inside the head. There was stuff like comics too, which was also impressive, but acknowledging that would hurt the crux of what was keeping Dawn so agitated right now.

A soft-shaded pastel tiger with rounded nubs for fangs, walking on two legs with a bright friendly face didn’t inspire confidence for the potential complexities a tale like that might have.

“No.”

“No?” Grace repeated, playing up her surprise. “Well…” she hummed as she thumbed through a few wide pages by herself, “I think there’s some really cool pictures in this one?” she pulled back the book to peer down at Dawn again. “Maybe we should give it a try?”

“What are the themes?”

“Themes?” Ha. Guess Grace didn’t expect a pretend three-year old to ask something like that.

“What’s the genre?” Dawn doubled down. “Mystery? Romance?” If Grace was going to stall and waste her time, certainly she was at least going to give her something with some meat on it? Something to sink her teeth into? Christ, for plot convenience Tumbly the fucking Tiger was probably friends with the whole animal kingdom; prey and all. Too bad the carnivore would somehow be a vegetarian. If that tiger’s teeth were too dull to bite, at least let Dawn consume something…!

“This story…” Grace skimmed the back of it, “teaches us that it’s important to share and follow the rules. Wanna go over to the sitting circle and check it out?” Grace insisted yet again.

“No,” Dawn repeated once more.

“...Okie-dokie!” Grace, brushing off the cold rejection, slid the book back in its place. “There’s lots more to choose from. So let’s see…”

And while Grace put in all the team effort on her own, Dawn dragged her feet in a small circle, just barely catching glimpses of more unfortunate sights.

Being Big Again

Counting Three’s

Kingdom Under the Crib

Traded - Learning to Share

Not Fair - Why Rules are Good!

Breaking the Toy

Funny how titles were supposed to be the earworms that hooked your brain and caught your attention. They all certainly worked wonders at inciting emotion, only all the negative ones. Maybe. Just maybe something out of all these shelves could receive the bare minimum score of entertaining or passable for the adult mind, but her standards were far beyond a tolerable place now that she knew she was being forced to choose among a filtered selection. If she didn’t get any leniency, the institution would be getting none either.

“How about this one? Doesn’t this look silly?”

“No.”

“Oou…! This one is about space! Do you like stars?”

“Nope.”

“Then…oh, how about kitties? Aren’t cats so cute?”

“I’m not interested.”

Again and again. Three finite resources were being drained and it was only a matter of time to figure out which was in the shortest supply. Grace’s patience? Dawn’s stubbornness? Or, the worst of all, the seemingly endless torture trove of baby books to sift through?

And just when the corner of Grace’s mouth was starting to hide behind her cheek, the battle was shifting in the Little’s favor. “Jeez, Dawn! You’re an awfully picky reader!” Even if it was minor and a disguised reaction, obviously it meant something. Surely. The mild discomfort only emboldened the girl’s resistance…!

And soon enough Grace was back to crouching with her knees pressed together, scanning the selection for yet another recommendation. Though she chuckled with a mutter, “You’re just as picky as your Mommy…”

Ugh.

The offhand comment came at her like a rusty, slimy hook. Something gross and ill-inducing that had no business invading her headspace. Comparing them? She and Katherine? What similarities? Books? Maybe. Just maybe the faintest thread existed, but that was pure coincidence. Nothing else. It was a thread of fate that existed like so many others between passing strangers on the street. Their relationship went absolutely no further than that, so to hear a complete stranger, acting so friendly and familiar, treating Dawn like she was actually Katherine’s…!

“Grace!” an exasperated voice caught wind of the Amazon and Little. Katherine, standing by the entrance to the prison pen, identically dressed now compared to her friend, was looking a tad bit upset. “You actually took her?”

Dawn tried to hide her side eye, wishing there hadn’t been anyone to show her any of this at all. But more importantly, even if it was out of obligation, the closest thing to an advocate for Dawn had returned. Her… “savior.”

Grace came back to her feet with a chuckle and shrug. “You mean you’d keep your little girl bored and waiting just so you could be the one to bring her here?” she laughed. “Sorry~! Guess I wanted to be nice!”

And since she couldn’t say it aloud, Dawn kept her insults and scoffs to herself, tucked away nicely inside the filing cabinet that lived inside her head. Filed under “Why I hate Amazons,” an unsurprisingly expanding folder…

Apparently Katherine had been checkmated, because she didn’t pursue the taunt. Instead she entered the Little’s den and crouched right beside Dawn, giving her a warm smile.

“Are you looking for something fun to read?”

“N-...” Dawn started to react, then skipped to the main issue altogether. “--I want to go see the other books in the library.”

“The other books?” Katherine tilted her head.

“Yes, the other books,” Dawn stressed. “Not a bunch of books for babies and kids. Real books!”

“I tried to tell her…” Grace quietly added from over the Little’s head.

“...Dawn,” Katherine started after glancing up at her friend, “All the books here are really big. Sometimes they can be a little hard to read too; even for me!”

“And I’m not here to read books for kids!” Dawn stressed. “When you said you were taking me here, I actually thought I’d get to read meaningful stuff; not kids books!”

“But you can learn a lot from these? See?” Katherine explained, grabbing one of the nearest books. “Belinda’s Buzzy Business,” she recited just like Grace did, and even traced her finger slowly with each and every word. A fat ball of black and yellow lines with tiny wings and a face smiled on the cover. “This one teaches you about all the big important jobs there are in nature?”

Through what, the imaginary friendships and conversations animals of different species in a complex ecosystem would never have?

“I don’t want to read that…! I…I want to read something…” Fuck, was there really no better word?  “Something mature!”

“Dawn, there’s nothing wrong with these books?”

With few effective tricks, Dawn opted for the litmus test. “Would you read it?”

“Would I?” Katherine repeated, glancing down at the cover. “Sweetie, of course I’d read it? When it’s break time later we can read it together?”

Together? No! No! No!

“You…!” Dawn groaned with her hands in her hair. “Why did you even get my hopes up…! So what: I’m stuck in here the whole day? In this stupid pen with no actual books to read?”

“I thought you liked books, though?”

“Stop twisting it!” Dawn cried. “You know this isn’t what I meant! I read actual books! Novels! Memoirs! Biographies! I want prose; poems! Murder mysteries, romance, science fiction, post-apocalypse, war, famine, politics; anything that none of this stupid corner has…!”

A sharp prickle stung her back when she heard Grace comment from behind, directly to Katherine and completely over her fake-daughter, “That stuff really isn’t appropriate for a Little…?”

And the fuse had been lit. The fire was about to blaze, and just when Dawn and her diapered ass was about to turn on her foot to give not just a piece of her mind, but the whole goddamn thing, a pair of Amazon arms clamped around her and into a hug.

“Dawn, I know it can be frustrating when we don’t like the rules, but we have them for good reasons?” Katherine explained, and Dawn wriggled and squirmed.

She wasn’t dumb, though. She was fully aware that she was ready to blow up at Grace, and more than likely say quite a few things that at the bare minimum would’ve been “unfriendly.” She wasn’t dumb because she knew Katherine wasn’t completely either. Katherine was smart, just…selectively ignorant. Like everyone else. Even if the affection right now was genuine, the practical use of a hug right now meant more than the emotional. In other words, Dawn was one step away from upping her tantrum and Katherine saw it coming. Was she really getting that predictable?

Katherine rubbed her back. “Dawn, the library gets very busy during the day, and it’s just not safe to let all the Littles that come here with their Mommies and Daddies run around.”

“The library isn’t a playground, Dawn,” Grace added, like she thought she was actually being helpful.

“And I’m not here to play!” Dawn scrutinized Katherine. “I’m not reading anything here! I want actual books!” But apparently she couldn’t, all because of discrimination.

“Shh…okay,” Katherine calmly and quietly hushed, and to need any of that only made the girl in her arms more upset. She wasn’t making a scene! Her anger was justified! This was fair! Stop trying to put her out like a pesky, unimportant fire! “How about this: can we make each other a promise?”

A promise? A deal? If it was anything that could even remotely excite Dawn, it better have been in writing. Then again, what system was in place to actually stop an Amazon from cheating a Little? After all, it’d been done time and time again so easily and carefree.

While Dawn wasn’t answering, she was looking.

“If you promise to be on your best behavior today, once it’s my break, I promise I’ll take you around the library, okay? We can look at some of the books.”

It was a trick. A trap. Some kind of clause that undid anything that was seemingly a benefit to the poor girl. She should refuse. She should ignore it. And yet… “...Really?” Why…why did she have to get her hopes up…?!

“Yes, really,” Katherine nodded quite soundly. “It’s a promise, okay?”

“F…fine.” Lay low. Pretend like she didn’t exist the whole day, then reap the rewards.

Slowly she was released from her ride and Dawn was back on her own two feet. Katherine, calm and collected, tuned her expression to be a bit more cheery. “And, I want you to find at least one book in here to read, okay?”

“What?” Dawn’s mouth went crooked and her eyebrows sank. “That wasn’t part of the deal!” She couldn’t do that! The imaginary papers had already been signed! And then, oh, then Katherine had the audacity to say…

“Dawn?” she raised the tone of her voice, warping it into a warning, like whatever good faith the girl had just been coasting on was about to be irreparably broken. Why was this fair? Why did she get to do this? Making up rules, terms and conditions after the fact they agreed to something? “You’re gonna be in here for the most of the day, so I want you to find something you’ll like, okay?”

“Th-the whole day?” Dawn stammered in surprise, but how obvious it should’ve been was only hitting her in the moment, plain as day for Katherine and Grace to hear and see.

“Your Mommy needs to help everyone visiting the library, sweetheart!” Grace chimed in, and Dawn wished she simply didn’t exist.

“I’m gonna be on the same floor the whole time,” Katherine assured, and Dawn was drifting further from anything even remotely close to complacency. The only halfway decent thing that saved Dawn from asking embarrassing questions was by the woman reading her mind for her.

“Another nice friend of mine is gonna be here all day with you, okay? It’s her job to pick out all the fun stories you can listen to! Maybe you’ll like some of those?”

The sitting circle, as Grace had called it, struck the girl’s mind. The giant rocking chair and bean bag seats… This was just a pseudo-daycare. A dropoff for kids while their parents got what they needed…! Sure, maybe it wasn’t one officially in name, but right then it was clear by just how much Katherine was toeing the line with what did and did not count as childcare that Dawn didn’t need…!

“You’re gonna get to meet lots of other kids your age, too?” Grace, again with her horrible facts, added.

And with all that in her head, Dawn couldn’t have looked more disappointed with believing for just a second that she really dodged any kind of bullet with her so few rules that she made Katherine abide. No daycares? Sure. No library baby-watch stops, though? Fair game, for sure!

“Grace…” Katherine looked up at her friend, “Is…do you think Dayna might be willing to swap with me?” Swap with who? Dayna? What, was that the name of today’s warden?

“You can try, but she goes on vacation tomorrow…” Grace faded out, implying something obvious only to the two Amazons. “If it were me, I wouldn’t wanna lose the fun job on my last day…”

And Katherine sighed, exchanging her disappointed look with Dawn for a confused one. “Yeah…me neither…”

“She should be here any minute now, I think,” Grace murmured, glancing at a phone in her hand. “And shoot! Oops, gotta go! I need to make it over to the front desk… See ya soon! Bye Dawn!” she flashed a hand as she left the pen, finally leaving the original pair alone. Now at least it felt a bit easier for Dawn to speak her mind.

“You lied to me.”

“Lied? What?”

“I said no daycare, and you promised!” Dawn hissed.

“I did promise, though?” Katherine agreed, but the mutual understanding stopped there. “You’re not at daycare right now?”

“Then what is this?!” Dawn waved her arms, making it a very deliberate point to motion towards the fence surrounding the space. “I’m just supposed to be stuck here all day? I can’t leave on my own, and I have to read a bunch of stupid books that I could care less about?”

“Dawn, you shouldn’t be saying something like that… Stupid isn’t a nice word.”

“No.” Finally, Dawn put her foot down. “No,” she said again, “No! I played your game. Fine, I’m not swearing anymore,” vocally, at least, “but you’re not policing stuff like ‘stupid’ and ‘dumb’. I’m not gonna call anyone that, but I am keeping that.”

Some kind of mantra must have been circulating through Katherine’s head, because she didn’t bite back on the argument. Instead she took a breath before saying, “Please, just behave,” she reminded, and Dawn tried not to flare her nostrils.

And as determined as Dawn looked, she stuttered as she asked, “What…what happens when I need to use the bathroom? How am I supposed to get you if you’re not gonna be in here?”

“I’ll check on you regularly to see if you need a change,” Katherine said simply.

“No. That’s not what I asked. Bathroom. Toilet,” Dawn leaned on her words.

“What?” Finally, Katherine was starting to become oblivious to the things that’d been debated and discarded so one-sidedly long ago. “Dawn, honey, that’s why you have your diaper on. Don’t worry about the potty today, alright?”

“But that’s…!”

“Other people are watching, Dawn. That’s why we need to be good and behave, okay?” And somehow, being good meant being incontinent. Unfair. So unbelievably unfair. “It’s nothing to feel embarrassed about. Everyone in here is gonna be in diapers, too?” And probably just as much not by choice, but what did that matter arguing with mob mentality itself?

And more and more interruptions were always intervening.

“Katherine, hey!” A new voice from behind, and Katherine turned her head.

“Dayna! Good morning!” AndjJust as Katherine stood, her back that once shielded Dawn from exposure was evaporated.

“Good morning, and is this who I think it is?”

“Yes, I think it is,” Katherine laughed with a bashful look. “Does the word really get around that fast?”

“Yes, I think it does,” Dayna nodded, and from the sound of her voice her eyes were probably rolling too. “No offense though, but it really was just a matter of time for you. Everybody knew you were gonna do it at some point…?”

“Jeez, fine, enough of that! Grace was giving me a hard enough time as it is… But, yes, this is Dawn! Dawn, can you say ‘hi’?”

And yet again, being asked to do something before Dawn could do it on her own good faith herself. Was she going to greet the Amazon if unprompted? Absolutely not, but principles were principles.

“Hello.”

“So polite!” Dayna gasped, and Dawn was cringing. The Amazon dropped to her knees, unfortunately. “And how old are you, Dawn?”

“I am in my twenties…” Did big numbers turn them off to the idea of infantilism?

“Oh wow!” Dayna exclaimed the same way any teacher meeting her new kindergarteners might sound, “I guess she’s closer to that age where diapers wouldn’t have been so far away, huh?” Dayna laughed with Katherine, and Dawn watched for her reaction like a hawk.

“So, anyway…” Katherine moved things along, “Just with our situation right now, I decided to bring Dawn into work today, so she’s gonna be here in the Learning Corner while I work.”

“Mhm? That won’t be an issue for me? Were you looking for me to take over?” she pointed out the bag slung over Katherine’s shoulder that Dawn finally noticed.

“Oh, this? No, uhm, I planned on keeping it here nearby, if that’s okay? It’s your last day before vacation, right? I don’t want to give you any more responsibilities,” she laughed, and so did Dayna, and so didn’t Dawn.

Funny how she was a “responsibility” purely because Katherine and the rest of this world turned her into one.

“Okay, sure, that’s fine! I’m sure we’ll be good buds by the end of the day, but check on her as much as you need to,” Dayna smiled nonchalantly.

“Thank you so much!” Katherine clasped her hands appreciatively. “Only thing is, would you mind getting her juice if she asks for it? I packed some bottles for her, and everything’s in here,” Katherine reminded with a jostle from her shoulder. “She knows to behave,” thank goodness, otherwise Dawn was surely going to be a ball of fire. “So if there’s any kind of trouble, just let me know and I can take care of it.”

“Okie-dokie, sounds good!” Dayna nodded, accepting the diaper bag from Katherine. “Anything else I should know?” If only Dawn was allowed to speak in any way whatsoever on how to handle herself; like leaving her the fuck alone.

“All of this is still new to her, so please be patient? I promised her if all I got were good reports from you, then I’d take her around the library to see some of the other books. She likes reading!”

“Oooh!” Dayna mouthed, and Dawn stooped her shoulders while she looked away. “So someone’s gonna be extra good today for a special treat, huh? Okay then,” she laughed, “understood!”

“And actually,” Katherine hummed, reaching into the bag now sitting on the bookshelf, “Dawn? Let’s get you started on something to drink.”

And it only hit her after she took the container that it was a bottle. Not a sippy cup. Not a bottle with a twist cap, but the kind topped with a silicone nipple.

“This isn’t my normal cup,” Dawn said plainly.

“Sippy cups are when we’re at home,” Katherine said, not explained. “I packed lots of that melon juice you like, though?” Juice she didn’t even like… Juice she found palatable because it was already decided on and bought for her…!

“Oh, that stuff? My niece can’t get enough of it!” Dayna chuckled. “And you packed her a whole bag of that? Goodness, Dawn. Sweetie, I think your Mommy’s gonna spoil you rotten…!”

And true to her word, Dawn could feel the rot building in her brain.

“Okay… Gotta go for real this time,” Katherine finally said to Dawn. “Is everything okay? Do you feel fine?”

Hardly. This was reaching new levels of suckiness with each passing minute. “Yes. I’m fine.”

“Okay,” and without asking, Katherine pulled her in for another snug and tight hug. A worrisome hum left the budding Mommy’s heart. “Like I said, I’m gonna be nearby and I’ll be checking in often, okay?”

“Mhm.”

“Good,” and she crossed the line again with another wet kiss on the forehead that Dawn was rubbing away the moment she turned.

“Thank you again, Dayna!” Katherine waved, though her eyes kept stealing looks at Dawn like she’d never get the chance to see her again.

“Anytime! See you later!”

And she was gone.

Now Dawn was on friend number two, and how things would go from there was pure uncertainty. Dayna smiled nonetheless down at the girl though.

“So Dawn, is this your first time at the library?”

At this one, yes? At any of them? “No? I’ve been to libraries before.” That apparently put a look of surprise on the woman’s face.

“Really, now?”

“Yes?” Was it that surprising?

“I’ve never heard of a library around here allowing Littles in on their own…” Dayna mused. “But anyway, I’m so glad I get to spend the day with you!”

“Great.” Too bad the feeling was far from mutual.

“Mommies and Daddies come and like to drop their kids off here while they get what they need. Every day there’s someone like me here to read you all lots of fun and exciting stories!” Dayna held a hand to her chest, just in case Dawn didn’t realize that she was the only Amazon within a thirty foot radius.

“Uh-huh.”

“And, from what I know, you must still be pretty new to your Mommy and Daddy, huh? So, something tells me that you might know yourself a teeny tiny bit better than Mommy might right now? So, if you’re comfortable telling me, is there anything else that I should know about you?”

What else should she know? What? That Dawn was kidnapped against her will? That she’s stuck in a dimension and far from home? That she had no business whatsoever being in diapers, and that this was all some cheap farce forcing her into something she wasn’t?

“I just want to be left alone.”

“Alone~?” Dayna sang with a gasp. “Well that’s no fun! Don’t you wanna meet all the other kids that are gonna be here soon?”

Was she being serious? No, she probably was. “Not really.” Not at all. What was the best case scenario? Seeing a face she’d likely only ever meet once in her life? What’s worse, someone in just as shitty of a situation or one that was twistedly worse? The last thing she wanted was a closeup of what she could potentially be destined to become.

“Mm…well, I hope you’ll come around…!”

And Dawn’s unfortunate answer was to simply take a swig from her bottle. Then her eyes drifted to the side, somehow quickly learning to dread what she cherished so much. The army of books surrounding her, all vile in some sort of way, would now become the poison that she was forced to pick, per Katherine’s amended deal…

She reluctantly stuck her free hand out for one of the books, hoping to finish the “fun” sooner rather than later, but her hand was promptly pushed back.

“Ah-ah!” Dayna, tutted, “Dawn, that’s a rule we have here. No food or drinks around the books.” And Dawn looked down at the bottle, dumbfounded.

Then why in the hell did she give me this…?!

So sighing, Dawn put the bottle down on the floor in front of her sneakers, resuming the search. But so too did the Amazon hand block her again. Now looking a bit annoyed, Dawn glanced up at the woman.

“No food. No drinks.” Dawn repeated, trying not to sound pissy. Did she not do as she was told?

“Dawn, your juice is right there,” Dayna pointed to the ground with a knowing look. “Finish up your bottle then you can play with the books.” Was reading not even reading anymore? Now it was playing?

“Then put it back in the bag?” Dawn shrugged, like the problem solely lied with the newly appointed caretaker. How wishy-washy were these people going to be? First it wasn’t her problem, then suddenly it was again?

“We’ll put it back once it’s empty, honey. Drink your juice.” More of being told what to do. Dawn did not like.

“…My Mommy said I had to pick out a book to read and show her later… My hands are clean. Do you want me to show you?” And feeling especially bitchy in the most passive way possible, Dawn was already stretching out her arms, waving out her open palms.

“Don’t worry, sweetie, we’ll wipe those down with some wet wipes after. Tell you what: how about I read you something while you drink your juice?”

And Dawn turned her hands, already finding them spotless. What wiping did they need? Was it more gaslighting and conditioning just to make all these stupid rules even more absolute?

Just as she was about to regretfully reach down for her bottle, Dayna’s hand reached forward, flipping up Dawn’s shirt and latching on the front of her pants, diaper included. It was fast and prompt, but for a full few seconds the Amazon peered down the front of her diaper.

“S-stop!” Dawn yelped, pulling back forcefully and hard, but her pants and diaper only slapped shut once Dayna decided to let her go. “Why did you do that?!”

“Because I know what a little attitude sounds like, honey,” Dayna smiled with a knowing look, gamifying her small bout of sexual harassment. “Dry though… Wet diapies can sometimes be a bit uncomfy.”

Was this really how the day was going to go? One filled with unprompted, nonconsensual peeks at Dawn’s privates? Ka…Katherine was unacceptable. She shouldn’t be doing it either, but…if Kathrine was rock bottom, then A complete stranger like Dayna was negative levels beyond the bedrock that her fake Mommy was supposed to be.

“I can tell you if I’m wet!” Not that she’d ever say it, though. “Besides, you’re…! You’re not allowed to do that!”

“Dawn, honey, I check diapers for kids in here all the time?”

“And did they consent to that? Did they give you permission?”

“Their parents did, sweetie?” Right, because circular logic be damned; how wasn’t this a daycare, again?

“Well I didn’t. And no one else gave it to you, either!” What a clever way of avoiding the M-word.

“Then if I can’t check you, how am I going to know once you need a change?”

“Because you aren’t going to know! K…” No way to avoid it this time. “Mommy said she was going to check. So it’s none of your business.”

“Uh-huh…” Dayna briefly nodded, and whatever logic and truth she was using, it didn’t seem to be flying by her so freely.  And without a definitive conclusion, Dayna stood back up. “Do you wanna drink your juice over at the circle while I get some books together?”

Just so the Amazon could watch her like a hawk? With no words, Dawn grabbed her bottle, half-expecting another sneak attack on her pants. But because there wasn’t, she tried to walk as calmly and noiselessly as she could. If it wasn’t something explicitly annoying to do, or demeaning enough, she was willing to give in to a point that hopefully didn’t make many waves…

It was just her and a stranger trying to be as handsy with her as if she were Katherine. What right did she have? Just Dawn and someone she hardly knew on top of what was going to be an incoming brigade of tots coming and going. More than likely adult bodies, muscles and breasts, diapers and all.

The bags of beans were roundish, irregular and tall. One bag she could see a little bit over as a testament to its height, and she tossed her bottle up on the bright green material wrapped all around it. If only it could have been one of the modern, fur-cloth kinds that actually felt expensive. This was just thick industrial plastic cloth reminiscent of her actual daycare days that was only about bright colors and a rough balance between function and form.

She grabbed onto the smooth material, scraping her hands as she swung her leg to try and force an indent to get into the seat. Her thick sneaker slipped though as she leaned into it, trying to climb but only deforming the beady inside.

“Oops, those are a little tough to climb!” Dayna right from behind chuckled, and before Dawn knew it a hand pressed against her bottom, rocketing her straight up and into the seat.

Dawn spun her body to look up at the predator, quickly muttering, “Thank you…” Better to be said fast than told later to do the same.

“Of course!” Dayna smiled, and off she hummed behind the rocking chair, perusing all the books along the high Amazon shelf that Dawn just like every other Little, with or without food and drink was strictly prohibited from.

Ridiculous…

Dawn sighed, begrudgingly sucking the bottle. Tiny spurts came out with each tiring suck. Since when was drinking supposed to be an exercise? She held the bottle up to the ceiling, just so gravity made absolutely sure that not an ounce of work was wasted on scoring the liquid.

And it sucked. It sucked so much. Not just the sucking of her bottle, but sucking of how halfway decently good the juice truly was. Whatever melon the taste was supposed to mimic, it didn’t change the sweet taste with a tinge of tang. It was like a tropical punch on a warm and sunny day. Too bad she was busy spending hers inside a designated space for children. One bottle later and Dawn was back on her feet. The empty bottle was finished and left behind on the beanbag seat. Finally unhindered, she grabbed the first book she saw off the shelf.

Nope.

Dumb.

Boring.

Was this one about diapers?

A story about milk?

A teddy bear army? What kind of ideas did this–

“Dawn?” A curt voice caught her attention.

Like an afterthought, Dawn glanced over at Dayna and all her many towering feet. Her eyes and mouth were perched on the edge of expectant and disapproval. Great. What was her problem now?

“What? I finished my drink?”

“But we didn’t clean off your hands,” Dayna reminded, and Dawn may or may not have “forgotten.”

“My hands are clean, though?”

“Dawn…don’t be difficult,” Dayna, apparently the new queen, admonished her. “Put the book down and let’s wipe your hands.”

And limiting it to just a look, Dawn did set down the book, standing in place. Maybe Dayna was trying to avoid an argument that the Little, despite being told not to, was priming herself for, because she walked off on her own, rummaging through the diaper bag and coming back with a square white wipe in her hand.

“Can you hold out your hands for me, please?”

And out they came.

The wipes were quick and brief, but her hands certainly felt wet. Thanks, wet wipes. In fact, Dawn would argue that her hands felt even more inept to be handling someone else’s property than they originally did. Not her problem, though. She was just following the “rules.”

“Okay, all clean now. Just let me know if you want another bottle, okay?”

“Uh-huh.”

Back to “playing” she went.

More bad books.

More crimes against literature.

She had progressed to the point of glancing at pages more than just the covers and titles, and the regret was only growing.
 

The books were off. The contents were strange. They all had simple and obvious lessons, like any kid’s book would, but the teachings and morals were…off.

Learning to share. Being selfless…be kind, be nice… All that was there, but so were other things.

And Tommy learned that the best way to have fun was being a good little boy, after all.

Not a shoe, nor a poo was out of place that night. All thanks to Mothery Moo!

Diapers go squish-squish! Panties go dff-dff…

The illustrations were off. Emphasis on diapers and families weren’t just one-time coincidences Dawn had seen in the other books. It wasn’t all of them, but so many books were far more deceptive than she was realizing. It taught simple lessons, but all the wrong ones.

What’s more, the less offensive stories that weren’t thick slabs of cardboard pages still had their strange material quirks. The pages were still far from paper; thick and tough. Like construction paper times three, or something. It was smooth and sturdy like the pages themselves were plastic? Not that she’d try to deface a book, but she did press a little, watching the paper-like material bend and arch. What were these things made of…?

“Oops, are we the first ones?” An Amazon, finally not in a uniform but plainclothes, was standing by the entrance of the area, holding a little girl against her hip. Well…no…not little. A Little. The mystery was solved once Dawn noticed the slight bumps hiding behind her dress, which was most of everything that she could identify about the girl being once a woman. The curves on her legs were hiding behind her thick, frilly socks traveling up to the knees. Her hips and waist disappeared underneath the length of her sundress. The flowery pin in her straightened hair wasn’t doing her any favors either.

“Fraid not!” Dayna laughed, walking past Dawn and up to the front. “She’s number two. Who do I have the pleasure of taking in today?”

“This is Kailey,” the mother, beaming, set the Little down on the floor, landing on her two feet. “I needed to do some research in one of the computer labs… Is it okay to leave her here for a little bit?”

“Absolutely is! Can you just sign her in right here?” she motioned to a wooden slant extruding out of the framed gate. “Helps us keep track, and all.”

“Yeah, I imagine it gets a little busy here.” Dawn watched the woman mutter while she scribbled on something. “Should I leave her supplies?”

“Only if you think you’re going to be long.”

“Mm…” the Amazon hummed, holding her own equipment bag, similar to the one Katherine got. “Just in case?” She offered it up, and Dayna accepted. “Thank you so much!” the woman smiled appreciatively, and Dawn slowly drifted ahead and around to a private spot behind one of the aisle shelves.

Her back came against the shelf and her bottom sunk until the dry, airy squish hit the floor. She angled a new story on her knees sitting close to her chest. And yet, even when trying to read something that she knew would hurt her, life wouldn’t even let have that self-destruction.

With ears too pristine for their own good, Dawn had the displeasure of hearing Dayna start all over again with the newest cut of fresh meat.

“Hi there, Kailey! My name is Dayna.”

“Hi…” A quiet, demure voice answered back.

“Sounds like your Mommy’s gonna be a little busy; do you like stories?”

“Yeah…” The girl, Kailey, was it? She sounded shy and reserved. And after Dawn’s far too close encounter with that guy in diapers down the street… Why was she shy? Embarrassed, or just emulating that same kid-like behavior that came with meeting new people?

Whatever it was, Kailey must have been a breath of fresh air for Dayna. Since it sounded like she followed the script, the librarian cheered without reservation. “Well~! I love stories. And I bet if you tell me something that you really like, I think I can…”

And finally Dawn could tune them out. Good riddance. Still, she dropped the book, trying to stay quiet. The shelf to put it back would mean showing herself to them, and that she wasn’t a fan of. But she wasn’t shy, of course. She just wanted to be left alone, just like she told Dayna earlier.

Carefully she stood back up and softly crinkled her way deeper into the tiny maze. Or in other words she went one bookshelf deeper to the far left reach of the corner, positioning herself somewhere between the white picket fence and shelf.

I’ll just put the other one back later… Dawn sufficed, leaving the story she brought with her on the floor and reaching over for a new book to disappoint herself with. At this point she’d kill for just an informational text. Something without characters, a plot, or anything else whatsoever. A dictionary, an atlas; something that didn’t have the opportunities to be exploited as a mockery of fiction.

But she didn’t have that, so the best she could do was try not to think too deeply on the content, and instead hang on to enough information that’d at least convince Katherine into thinking she found something. If only she were actually “reading” though.

This wasn’t reading.

The characters didn’t matter, and neither did the story. The more she absorbed and observed, the text only felt more and more superficial. Good stories were written to tell a tale and promote a message second. This was the reverse. It was all busy traffic of vehicles in different shapes and sizes focused on delivering a message first and foremost.

What did the charming prince matter if the princess he rescued rewarded his efforts with a nursery locked away in her tower? Sleeping beauty wasn’t about the heroism of a savior, but just an easy dressing to promote the importance of naps. It was all so fake and so obvious, yet she had nothing fair to compare it to.

This is all this place was? Propaganda? And to think, Dawn turned her head, peering through the mesh lining in between the plastic etched posts along the fence. Tall, mighty bookshelves with actual information. Real authors. Real stories. Real enjoyment and excitement. Christ, the bookshelves’ intricate wooden carvings told more of a story than the cardboard in her hands! Meanwhile, Dawn’s hand planted itself on the smooth, textureless heavy-duty page, retrieved from an elementary school shelf. It wasn’t the paper she knew and it wasn’t the feeling she appreciated.

With a sad puff she kicked out her feet, laying out her legs straight. How long was she supposed to keep doing this? Maybe if it was something she actually wanted to read, she could bear with it, but being stuck like this…? Maybe if Katherine can change the rules, Dawn could try begging for a book to bring back…

But that was for later, and this was now. Now rightfully so, sucked. She blinked, finally noticing the odd one out in her peripherals. The moment she raised her head, the anomaly jerked itself out of view, though not without the whiplash of her straight hair waving out and back in.

Dawn quietly stared at the corner of the bookshelf for a moment longer. She was totally just being watched, wasn’t she? Someone was staring at her? Then it clicked. The only person she knew of in this tiny reeducation camp hardly cared about any discretion… Dawn squeezed her legs a bit closer together.

Someone else was here, though. Someone that already sounded shy. Someone that Dawn didn’t want to deal with. She stayed quiet, staring not for something, but because that’s where her eyes last were. Miraculously, the girl peeked again, only now she did make a small yelp once eye contact with Dawn was unavoidable. Great. She was being watched. Where was Dayna? Couldn’t she keep her away?

And to make matters worse, Dawn could already feel the tinge from needing to pee. Was this really how things were going to go? After an inward sigh, Dawn called out, “Kailey?” That’s her name, right? “You don’t have to keep hiding…?”

Immediately a switch was flipped.

Faster than her face could hide, Kailey’s head shot out completely, and then some of her lower body too.

“You know my name?” Kailey asked loud and clear, like indoors and outdoors were the same to her.

Still sitting on the floor, Dawn blinked, not sure how to react. “...Uh…yeah. I heard it earlier…”

Maybe she had a poor choice of words, or her tone gave off the wrong vibe. Either way, Kailey fully stepped out from the shelf now, hiding her hands behind her back. Her shoulders shifted pensively as her feet in yellow buckle-strapped sandals pitter-pattered forward, finally stopping on a dime with just about a couple feet apart from them.

Then a finger from Kailey singled Dawn out completely, still hiding her other arm behind her back. With her pointing accusation she asked, “What’s your name?”

“It’s Dawn…” When did I invite her to get so close?

Apparently communication meant consent to this girl. The discomfort and awkwardness only grew once Kailey parked herself right where she stood. And in a moment of carelessness, the grown woman with her knees wide apart flashed what was between her legs, and it was an upsetting sight to see.

Underneath the yellow of her sundress was an unmistakable bulge of white; a pair of underwear that crinkled just like Dawn’s, except this Little hardly seemed to mind. Finally she crossed her legs, but where her dress settled between her legs was where it could rest comfortably and conform around the slight bump.

“Whatcha doin?” Kailey asked. Dawn almost thought she was being playful, like a lackadaisical friend, but no matter what she said, the much more modest of the two couldn’t misplace the sincerity she seemed to have. She sounded innocent and careless, like…she wasn’t all there. Almost like…

“Uh…” The unusual exchange was enough to make Dawn actually forget. She glanced down at her lap, reminding herself what was there. “Just…reading.”

“What’s it about? Is it about frogs?” her question came on a dime, and the second sentence made her eyes light up.

Frogs? Why would she even ask about that?

“No, it’s…er…” What even was this supposed to be about? Well, as stated earlier, what it was “about” wasn’t actually the case, so more aptly, what was it disguised as? “It’s about…birds. Yeah.” Birds getting ready for a big dinner with their hedgehog friends… How exciting.

Off in the distance Dawn could hear a couple more voices. Were more people showing up already?

“Oh.” Kailey answered quite simply. Clearly her interest had not been piqued. “My name’s Kailey! I like frogs!” she giggled, and Dawn nodded.

“Uhm…nice to meet you, Kailey. I’m Dawn…”

With their reintroductions finished, Kailey immediately started the next topic. “Why’re you here? My Mommy’s doing important research stuff, she said.”

“I’m here because…mine works here.”

“Your Mommy works here?!” Kailey exclaimed and rocked forward on her behind. Her head started to wander up to the ceiling as she looked around frantically, pointing out an empty rail in the ceiling. “Does she talk to the book robots?”

The more she heard, the more Dawn was quickly realizing this was the exact kind of person she didn’t want to run into. Another person like that kid– that former adult from down the street… Another victim. It hurt just to see and hear her…

“She helps fix them, I guess, yeah…” This woman was just a product of the world. She was part of what scared and angered Dawn so much. But as much of a product she was, so too was she a victim. “What…what does your owner do?” Sure she’d follow the rule to refer to Katherine as her mother, but no one said that she couldn’t afford her peers some form of dignity/?

“Owner?” Kailey tilted her head, then giggled, “That’s weird! My Mommy makes people not sick! She can fix anybody! One time, she fixed a boo-boo on my knee!” And with a demonstration, Kailey lifted her knee, hiking up her dress well enough to show her spotless knee, save for a little red tint. But of course, Dawn couldn’t not see her stylized diaper, covered in frogs and all. Certainly there was a pattern…

So her owner was a doctor? Interesting. Someone so successful would trouble themselves with enslaving another human being. For someone so committed to helping others, in what way did warping another person’s mind count for that?

“That’s cool,” Dawn tried to stay flexible, and avoid looking at her diaper. “So she works at a hospital?”

“Uhh…” Kailey hummed, sounding uncertain. “She…works atta place where people get better!”

“Ohh, okay,” Dawn nodded. So…a hospital?

“Do you have a Daddy?”

What was with the twenty questions? Dawn didn’t want to do any thinking, nor did she feel like talking. She felt bad turning the woman away, but also not at the same time for the sake of herself.

“Uhm, Kailey?” Dawn scooched back against the shelf, just to stand herself back up. “It was nice meeting you, but uh…do you think I could have some privacy?”

“Huh? Why?”

Did she really need to explain social boundaries? To a woman clearly in her twenties…? In her twenties, but in diapers, too…

“I’m busy reading right now…and I can’t really focus when we’re talking… Do you mind?”

“Can I be quiet?” Kailey asked. Be quiet and stay.

And before Dawn answered, her bladder twinged again. Fuck. Why did she have to drink anything at all? Couldn’t she just live off of air, just so she didn’t have to take anything in and put anything out?

Cue the other noisy, energetic voices across the shelves. All of them, adults, more than likely, and that was enough to make Dawn even more unsettled.

“Don’t you wanna go play with the…other people? I’m not really doing anything fun.”

“But Dayna said you’d wanna?”

And in a burst of disbelief, Dawn exclaimed, “What?” What did Dayna say?

“She…said…” and Kailey brought her hands together pensively. The amount and kind of emotion Dawn had used clearly caught the woman-toddler by surprise.

“W-wait, nevermind,” Dawn tried to dismiss the tension. “I was just surprised, is all. Thanks for telling me… But sorry, I’m not really looking to play.” Or hang out. Or socialize.

The girl’s eyes were wandering anywhere but Dawn’s face, too nervous to confront a basic misunderstanding. “Okay…are you mad at me?”

“No, I’m not mad. Just…can you please leave me alone?” However old Kailey was, it didn’t change her attitude. It really was like a kid’s. Why was she acting like a kid? Reason or not, dealing with an effective child, essentially shooing them away… It felt weird.

“Okay…” Kailey, quite dejected, stood herself up and waddled away, taking Dawn’s less than satisfied mood with her, leaving her with something worse.

Don’t feel bad… It’s better she stays involved with whatever sick fantasy she’s been forced into… Better to keep to myself. After all, none of this would last forever. It was all temporary. Absolutely. Without a doubt.

She went back to her book, finding happiness once more with being reunited with her loneliness. The “enjoyment” she was starting to get out of her reading was spotting the devices and traps that supposedly tricked people into believing what they wrote, or what they didn’t. The birds went tweet-tweet. The cows went moo. Amazons were portrayed as some godlike figure, or the ex-machina that made everything all good again, at least in the stories that included humans.

Amazons seemed to be the solution. So. Many. Times. The resolution always led to relying on a giant somehow, or some higher power… Tell an “adult,” or “get a grownup.” Some were seemingly basic, while others came off as far more targeted.

Midway into her next skim, a shadow started to loom over her.

“What.” Dawn, finding it far easier to tiptoe around her words with an Amazon, looked up at Dayna. The same person that was spewing lies at other Littles to try and get her to do something.

“Looks like you’ve been reading quite a bit!” she remarked with a smile.

“...” Dawn glanced over at her growing pile. “Yeah.”

“What do you say we have a juice break?” Dayna asked with a bottle already extended.

“Uh, no thanks. All good.” Though her bladder wasn’t. Not like she was telling that to Dayna, though.

“Mmm,” a deliberate, disagreeing hum came from her caretaker, “How about we hydrate just a little bit, hon? Lots of liquids are important for kiddos like you!”

“No thanks, I’m fine,” Dawn repeated, and Dayna’s smile and demeanor didn’t budge.

“Dawn? I’d like you to have some juice, sweetie.”

And thinking better on it, the Little presented with a one-answer choice finally huffed, closing the boring book and finally accepted the bottle she wanted nothing to do with. It was a one-two punch, of course. One was more of a burden on her bladder, which was only becoming more uncomfortable. Two was the much more situational problem, which was…

“While you’re drinking that, how about you come over to the circle? We’re gonna start a story!” she tempted, and Dawn didn’t bite. Regardless, it meant having to leave her corner because now with a drink she didn’t ask for, it meant not being allowed to touch anything herself… How cruel.

“No. I’ll drink the juice, but I’m not interested.” And she promptly turned back for her seat. But before she could walk away, a hand hooked on her pants and diaper. Another surprise diaper check.

“Hey!” Dawn spun around with another mean look. “I said you didn’t have permission for that!”

“I think I do, sweetie. Your Mommy asked me to watch you while she’s at work. I’m checking everyone else? Don’t you want to stay clean too?”

“And I will be clean because I don’t piss myself!” In a moment of frustration, Dawn overstepped her verbiage.

“Dawn?” Dayna frowned, and Dawn stiffened. “Do I need to remind you about being on your best behavior? We said we were going to be good for Mommy today, weren’t we?”

We were going to be good? As far as Dawn was concerned, her end of the bargain was still being followed. Dayna? She was just being a bitch that had no business getting in the way of that! Really? Was she going to be the arbiter of whether Dawn did or did not get what she shouldn’t even need to earn?

“Fine!” Dawn huffed, marching forward and ahead of Dayna. No matter what though, this woman would undoubtedly be getting a poor review. Christ, complaining to Katherine about anything was barely even fifty-fifty. If she couldn’t stick up for herself, what recourse was there?!

She emerged into the clearing, the dreaded circle. Standing by the rocking chair she spotted Kailey again, only now she was giggling on her knees, busy with three other adult children. Two boys and one other girl. All fully matured. Muscles and breasts yet again. And just like those were a given, so too were the snug clothes for the boys that either showed off the white plastic waistbands sneaking through their shorts or the fully exposed diaper peeking from underneath a far too short skirt.

Not a single book between them was to be found, and instead what looked like action figures and dolls. Self-sourced toys? A gentle hand on her shoulder nudged Dawn forward and away from the chair, or the accursed throne where Dayna just sat.

“Okay, kids! Who’s ready for a story!”

And in a resounding cheer, all four Littles, Dawn excluded, yelped, “Meeeee!!”

“Okay!” Dayna chuckled, still getting that same high all obedient Littles probably gave her. “Let’s make a circle! Criss-cross applesauce, everyone!”

“Dawn!” Kailey was quick to waddle-jog over to her, crinkling like a thunderstorm. The moment they came face to face, the difference in height came slightly in Kailey’s favor. Her smile was wide and her eyes were shining, overjoyed to see the one and only adult at heart again. “Can we sit together?”

“Oh! Did you make a friend, Dawn?” Dayna smiled from the rocking chair, and Dawn fought from making a dirty look. She damn well knew what she did.

Focusing back on Kailey, Dawn at this point didn’t have so much more to lose. For now. “Uh…yeah? Sure?”

An excited giggle came from the girl who didn’t hesitate in taking Dawn by the wrist. “I wanna sit on the circle!” she declared, and Dawn went confused while she was dragged over to a spot. Weren’t they already going to sit in the circle? Then her mature mind was able to look down one level lower once she realized how literal Kailey was being. On the circle. One of the circles patterned on the carpet…

The other Littles assembled on either end of them, but clearly Kailey had found them the best seats in the house. In the Learning Corner, in other words. Right in front of them now was Dayna, already grabbing the first large book off a high table right next to her.

“Okay, are we all comfy?” Dayna surveyed the small group. “Everyone ready?”

“Yeeessss!” Another cry in unison.

Dawn briefly turned her head out to the exit, where now she could see a few more strangers. Looking at books on faraway shelves. Doing things she actually wished for. And yet here she was, trapped with a bunch of other kids for story time.

“Okay… This story is called, ‘Jumping Jeremy’s Fun Day Out!’” Dayna slowly read the cover, and then with both hands she turned the book, showing the whole audience the front cover’s illustration.

Kailey’s hip knocked into Dawn’s as she bounced with glee.

In a loud voice she giggled excitedly, “Froggies!”

Oh. Frogs are her favorite

[Hugues]

Where there is no great literary work to read, all is hell

[Lucifer666]

Update soon!

[Panther Cub]

4 hours ago, Mee said:

“Do you have a Daddy?”

Something tells me Dawn isn't ready to call James Daddy just yet...

[Mee]

Please Read this before reading that!

Hi everyone! This has been a busy year for me that's led to a lot of inactivity as far as the DD board goes. I've been neglecting a public release schedule that I've promised before, and I plan on making good on that now. I'm sure many of you have heard about many creators from this community losing their Patreons, and I wasn't an exception. The situation sucks, but I'm working on putting things back together. That includes a new Subscribestar which is live now with all the latest chapters of Sheltered and Illegal Immigrant. Slowly moving forward I'll be reuploading previously lost content and stories alongside new stuff that will be coming in more regularly.

If you are a previous patron and want to know where I am now, that's where I'll be! There is a public post on that page which goes into a little more detail about everything and my plans moving forward, but regarding here on the board, I'm planning to return to a regular release schedule. With that included, I have Patreon stories that I've featured on here in an incomplete state; I'll be trying to find those and post the remaining halves since it has been quite some time now. But for starters, please enjoy two chapters from Sheltered and Illegal Immigrant.

I never imagined myself reaching quite this point as being a creative with diaper stuff, but to everyone that reads or plays my stuff and in some way is entertained by it, has thoughtful feedback, comments or considerations, thank you! Maybe in a way this reset will get me back into some better habits. As per usual, please stay tuned, and consider dropping by the Subscribestar! Thank you!

Also, I'm making space for some short-story commissions at $15/1000words (10k words or less) if you're interested! For those who have discussed and we've agreed upon commissions prior, yours will not be affected. Admittedly this is a way to recoup missed opportunities given the circumstances.

But aside from all that, please read and enjoy!

---

19 - Jumping Around

“Okay…” Dayna started from her rocking chair, postured like a queen before her masses, all condemned to diapers, bottles and sippy cups whilst she delivered her royal decree. Dawn listened to each and every familiar noise, though.

The laminate skin covering the book as it slightly crinkled from opening the book; a much more nostalgic noise than the kind of crinkling she was hearing from her neighbors practically every two seconds. The sound of a flipping page as the air caught underneath it was pushed and moved. It looked and sounded certainly like a real book. Maybe if she closed her eyes, she could disillusion herself into thinking that it was a normal book.

But imagining things was hard when reality kept knocking on the doorstep to her brain. The side of someone’s hand right next to her gently pressed against her temple as a not so quiet whisper was funneled into her ear.

“I really like froggies!” Kailey, the Little right next to Dawn admitted in a not so secret whisper, giggling, even.

And Dawn, too kind to kick a disenfranchised Little while they were still eternally down, offered a weak smile and nodded. “That’s…cool.”

It was a small gesture, but it made the girl shiver with excitement like she’d just formed an unbreakable bond with a new best friend. Dawn nearly tipped over to her side once Kailey nudged just a bit closer. Their hips were full on touching now, and the final adult of the two was trying to ignore whatever friendly actions she was trying to take. Even acknowledging Kailey was apparently enough to send the wrong signals, and yet flat out rejecting her felt horribly wrong.

“Dawn…?” A voice above the book in an actual quiet voice edged, and Dawn’s eyes drooped, seeing that it was Dayna addressing her. “I want to see that juice gone by the end of this story, okay?”

“I’ll finish it when I do…” Dawn quietly seethed, but just to get the Amazon off her back, she reluctantly lifted the bottle, turning her head away from the crowd just to sneak a suck.

“Okay, kids?” Dayna addressed everyone this time, trying to get back the oddly short attention spans from all the former adults sitting in attendance. “Are we ready for a story?”

“Yeessss!” all but Dawn cheered back in mismatching unison.

“Then let’s all be good boys and girls and be good listeners, okay?” Dayna asked clearly and carefully again, perching her hands on either end of the book.

“Okayyy!” Another response from the hive mind, and it only brought a toothy smile to the Amazon’s face.

“Okay…!” Dayna, the woman a day away from vacation, chuckled. Dawn cringed the moment she stared up at the woman, ordering and bossing her around. The eyes, the smile. The easy going attitude she had despite it being just another weekday of work. What did a little bit of trouble matter at a shift of work if it meant having a whole week– no, two? A holiday or a vacation right after? It suddenly made the day-to-day so easy and doable just from knowing that nothing but freedom and relaxation came right after it.

That was the problem, though. Dawn got it. She understood it. Staring up at the Amazon, for once a sickly feeling of empathy stabbed her like an invasive needle. It made her grimace, turning away for another swig of her bottle of juice. It made her feel weak. Incompetent. Disenfranchised and debilitated, sitting in a diaper at a storytime circle while the “adult” in the room told her how to act and behave.

Dayna got to be the king of the castle and was free after today. She was her own person, and right now that was so much more than Dawn could speak to. The only thing that slightly tugged her out of her mental misery right then was Dayna interrupting her thoughts with a beginning narrative.

“There once was a pretty little pond hiding away in a big green and lush forest! Snails, beetles, fish, dragonflies, and of course,” she paused for just a brief moment, just to look right at Kailey whose knees were already quivering excitedly, “frogs!” While they were asked to be quiet, that didn’t mean Littles weren’t allowed to express emotion, hence why Kailey could giggle and bounce without reserve.

“And in that pond…” Dayna went on, smiling over such an engrossed audience, “lived the bounciest, most jumpy frog there ever was; Jeremy!”

“Can we see? Can we see?” Kailey was practically begging, bouncing on her bottom and soon enough getting the other Littles to join in.

“You’ll all get to see, just be patient now!” Dayna laughed, and Dawn couldn’t look more disinterested. Nevertheless, she watched the Amazon turn around the large and wide story book, holding it lower to the ground to showcase the illustrations that she was privy to first.

It was a print of a watercolor painting of a pond inhabited by all its usual fauna and foliage. Fish were swimming, birds were chirping, ducks looked like they were quacking, and so forth. But of course they weren’t the realest depictions of their counterparts. Rather, the illustrator must have decided beaks and bills could curve enough just to smile, and all eyes had pupils like people.

The showcase was long and slow, starting on one end of the crowd, slowly panning to the other end where Dawn was sitting. Heads and faces were turning and poking out just to watch the still image for as long as possible, leading to Kailey’s head and hair knocking against Dawn who was trying not to bother looking.

But of course, Dayna stopped right when it reached Dawn. “Dawn, sweetie? Don’t you wanna see the pictures?”

“I saw it a second ago.” Dawn answered right back, looking squarely up at Dayna, specifically avoiding the book.

“No you didn’t!” Joe Schmoe, the adult in diapers down the aisle, loudly accused her. “I saw!” he announced again that he saw what he didn’t see. “She didn’t look!”

“Liam?” Dayna butted in with a slightly stern voice, “We don’t point at others.”

“But she didn’t…!” he whined right back, like it somehow mattered.

“And that’s okay,” Dayna said calmly right back.

Apparently now she was an advocate for Dawn which rubbed her the wrong way. A bitch was a bitch if she kept being a witch. Kindness killed the momentum and muddied the waters, but Dawn was still quite certain that she didn’t like Dayna, just like every other Amazon, even if she kept bratty adults off her tail.

“But Dawn,” Ah, thank goodness. It’s easy to hate her again. “It’s rude to turn your head when someone tries to show you something?”

“--But you just said I didn’t have to?” Dawn blurted right back in an incredulous voice.

“Yes I did, but that doesn’t mean you have permission to be rude,” Dayna scolded her, and Dawn was fighting back the urge to use a vile set of words.

She had yet to say anything, but whatever story her face was telling, Dayna was picking up on it like blood in the water. “Dawn?” Dayna gave her a look, and Dawn was doing her best to internalize what was dying to burst out.

Make good choices… Make stupid…fucking stupid good choices…

Dawn exhaled instead of speaking, feeling all the eyes on her. The only reason she had no supporters nor opposition could have only been because of the Amazon sitting in the chair. Her words built a wall that kids were simply too trained, disciplined and scared to try climbing. The fact that her “peers” were victims to that same concept spoke volumes about how warped things were here.

She lifted her knees, laying her arms on them and finally perching her chin on them. Putting on her best ‘I’m totally not pissy voice’, she said, “Okay. I’m looking.” Her eyes were certainly pointed at the pages. Her face was undeniably aimed at the thing that Dayna was holding. But that was it. She wasn’t “seeing” anything. Nothing more than red, and her imagination speculating all the cool and cunning things that she could have said or could have done.

“Can we see the next page…?” Kailey asked Dayna in a shy voice, and whatever “smile” Dayna was giving Dawn, it looked a bit more genuine once the other Little was on the receiving end of it.

“Not until we read it, silly!” And like that, the tension was cut and Dawn was freed from the magnifying glass. Thank God for Kailey’s curiosity. But either way, even if Dawn was calming down, her bladder certainly wasn’t. It was feeling fuller and she was becoming more squeamish with each second. Internally, of course. That didn’t stop her from glancing at all the other littles, wondering for just a second in morbid and fearful curiosity.

Do they actually…use them? Willingly?

They had to. It was a given. The looks on their faces, the way they acted…they were so…subdued. Like nothing bothers them. Like this was normal. All of this. The treatment, the talks. Their clothes, their circumstances and undeniable demise. But confronting that apparently didn’t matter. Not when they had stories being read to them.

Not when they had stories, and not when Dawn had to stay under the radar that she was flying dangerously close to. Staring at her own personal demise, finally she lifted the bottle again, disappointing herself with the touch of a silicone nipple.

 

---

“And Jeremy said to Mr. Birdy,” Dayna’s voice flipped from her narration to impersonation, and upped her pitch with a twinge of croak, “Why don’t you like to eat flies? They’re so yummy!”

And while the crowd erupted into a fit of giggles and laughs, half of Dawn’s brain was trying to see the humor in something so simple while also trying to remain inconspicuous. She didn’t have much time, unfortunately. There wasn’t much to read on each page of the book, meaning they were fed quite often some sort of image to look at, just to tickle their curiosity into being excited for the next.

Big moments in the story had more than just Kailey bouncing now and the Little Learners Corner sounded like it was experiencing a localized thunderstorm

“Let us see!”

“We wanna see!”

“Please? Please?”

They’d stick their heads out with pleading eyes just to be the first to see what Dayna had to show. Dawn wasn’t coincidentally looking away anymore, but she was maintaining her practice of seeing “through” whatever fiction was being advertised to her..

“Boys, hands to ourselves, please!” Dayna would remind them unfortunately often, which referred to every time they were putting their hands on the legs of their neighbor just to lean over for a view of the book for longer.

“And then…splat! Splat! Splat!” Dayna’s voice popped with each audible sound effect, She showed the next image. Jeremy the frog demonstrated his culinary interests to his flying friend by feasting on the nearby flying insects with his super stretchy tongue.

“That one’s my favorite!” Kailey declared, bold enough to make such a claim before the book was even half over.

“No, the bird one was better!” Liam, the Little rediscovering a “phase” was busy with the ‘n’ word again.

Both spoke of their opinions like they were facts, and in that simplified context, maybe they weren’t far off from being actual adults after all. And Kailey, a devout believer in the church of froggies shouted right back, “Nooo-uh! Frogs are better!”

“No! Birds!”

“Kids?” Dayna tried cutting in, and Dawn was seeing an opportunity.

Subtly… Slowly… Finally she was feeling less of Kailey’s hip smooshed against hers as millimeter by millimeter she tried scooching across the carpet to a place where she could afford herself some privacy. Her time was limited as she could only keep her bladder calm for so long…

In a wild turn of events, Kailey’s head spun on Dawn, far too fired up to notice the couple of inches that’d formed between them.

“Dawn? Frogs are better, right?” She spoke like Dawn was a sister in arms ready to lay down her life for a greater cause. For the reputation of frogs that risked being removed from its pedestal by some annoying guy and his equally irrational and fanatical love for birds.

“Kailey? Liam? It’s okay to like both, you know?” Dayna reminded, but the two seemed steadfast in their claims.

Yes…just keep arguing over stupid stuff some more… Almost!

Now it was Dawn’s turn to watch Dayna like a hawk. She scrutinized where she looked and where she didn’t. Kailey and Liam were stubbornly debating to a point that Dayna finally interrupted to scold them both, leaving the other poor Little out of a story on account of the selfishness of two others.

Well, as Dawn finally leapt to her feet and scampered off to one of the bookshelves, she knew her time was limited, which is why she dropped to a squat, sighing as she tried to grunt and bear down what she wanted to stay inside of her. It was like running up against a wall, but it wasn’t strong when it was already cracked from having to sit still and keep on drinking juice. Finally a hot, uncomfortable spurt escaped her, and the stream started.

It flowed and seeped, absorbing and soaking her underwear, if only for a brief moment. It was quick but that didn’t make it any more emotionally painless. She was peeing herself. Wetting. Just like every Amazon wanted. Just like fucking Dayna wanted…!

She stood back up and felt her face quiver at the unusual warmth between her legs. She was wet, but she wasn’t. She couldn’t feel the liquid, but it’d been absorbed and wasn’t going anywhere. Not until she got an exact replacement for what she’d do the same exact thing in. It was an unfortunate inevitability.

“Dawn?” And her time was up. “Honey? Where did you go?”

“Is she playing hide and seek?” Kailey, innocent and clueless, asked loudly and curiously.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Dawn quickly spoke up once she reappeared and tried playing it cool. “What?”

“Dawn, the story isn’t over yet, honey? Come sit down,” Dayna beckoned her back on over, then noticed another thing. “Sweetie, why did you bring that book?”

Holding an excuse in her hands, Dawn glanced down at it. “Oh. I wanted to read something, so I went and grabbed it.”

“But we’re already reading something?” Dayna with her unending intellect countered her. “You can read that after. Come on back to the circle.”

“But I finished my juice?” Dawn, picking up a bad habit, pointed at the empty bottle where she had been sitting. “So shouldn’t I be able to go read my own stuff now?”

“Then we have to wipe your hands, sweetheart, so let’s wait until this story’s done so I can clean you up.”

Clean up. What, did she roll through a mud puddle, or something? She certainly felt filthy given what the diaper she was wearing was like, but by Amazon standards she was probably as clean as a whistle. Well, save for her hands, if Dayna’s opinion was anything to go by.

“Where are the wipes?” Dawn huffed, looking around for the dreaded diaper bag. “I’ll wipe my own hands…”

But apparently Dayna wasn’t as cunning as she made herself out to be. Either that or she didn’t care to be particularly crafty. “Dawn, do I need to tell Mommy that you were misbehaving?” If she didn’t feel like playing a game to convince Dawn of what the right thing to do was, she needed only to hang  a stupid, pointless threat over her head.

She grit her teeth and they stared each other down for just a few seconds. Dawn opened her mouth and said, “Well, Dayna, I understand that it may seem like I’m misbehaving, but my Mommy wanted me to find a book on my own that I enjoyed? Unfortunately, I haven’t found the right book yet, so it’s really important I have some time to do that?”

“And you’ll have plenty of time to find a story that you like,” Dayna answered dismissively. “Do I need to count? Sit back in the circle, please.”

Count? A very frustrating memory resurfaced, and flashes of Katherine giving her the dreaded one-two-three which ultimately ended with her nose in the corner came back as well. An unbelievably unjust punishment that never survived the journey to a court of appeals that’d never support her cause.

It was a debatable act of kindness, given how atrocious all these books were, but Dawn had enough grace to set the book back down without dropping it disrespectfully, ultimately walking back to the circle, choking down a pissy look and attitude.

“Dawn…are you mad?” Kailey quietly whispered as the story continued.

“No…I’m fine.” Dawn tried to dismiss her as best as she could.

“...Okay…”

And back to her thousand yard stare she went, feeling more and more disturbed the longer she had to sit with a warm pad pressing against her behind.

On and one the story went. More and more pictures that Dawn pretended to see. She was quiet and emotionless, letting the time pass by as her brain starving for meaningful stimulation rotted away.

And finally…

“And Jeremy hopped back to his home in the pond, happy as could be!” Dayna declared, softly shutting the book.

Finally…it’s over….

“Can we read another one?” The other boy who had yet to be openly named asked the question.

And unfortunately his opinion wasn’t unpopular.

“Yeah! I wanna read another!”

“Can we? Please?!”

The Littles were begging and Dawn was revolting. Another one? Another stupid, simple and dumb story that had nothing to teach other than what maybe lived in a pond? Kailey got her stupid high from hearing a book about frogs, so why did she need any more?!

But before things could sway too much, Dawn quickly piped up. “Dayna? Can you wipe my hands first?”

Dayna’s head swiveled and followed each person who had something to say, giving them the attention their words probably didn’t deserve, but she was impartial anyway. “Tell you what, we’ll read another one soon, okay? You all must be pretty thirsty, huh?” She stood from the rocking chair, dusting off her spotless skirt. “Why don’t we get you all something to drink for a little bit then we can choose another?”

“Okayyy!”

Dawn was the first of the Little few on her feet and tailed Dayna like a caboose over to the line of diaper bags on the book shelf.

“Oops! Careful, Dawn!” Dayna chuckled as she turned, nearly colliding with the relatively tiny woman. “Coming through!” she walked ahead of her, baby bottles and sippy cups in hand. “Let’s see…this one is for Liam…” she muttered as she distributed, and Dawn impatiently waited for her to finish. But as she did so, Dawn noticed each trip to give something to a Little ended with circling right behind them. Peeling back pants or lifting the hem of a short dress. Padded rumps and plastic white flashed on each and every one of them as Dayna wordlessly administered a diaper check to each and every one of them.

Not only that, but Dawn looked far from happy to see a bottle with an all too familiar juice inside of it. She was one Little away from supposedly being done, yet she had that bottle of juice and a sippy cup that she knew wasn’t hers.

As ignorant as Dawn was to this world, she wasn’t foolish enough to not notice a deal that wasn’t being upheld. Not only that, but she was bound to be getting a diaper check, and that meant…

“Dawn?” Dayna was already in front of her, holding out the bottle.

“Wh…what? I’m full,” Dawn promptly refused and declined. “I don’t want any more juice.” This was somewhat true, actually.

“But you may want it later?” Dayna tempted and deceptively omitted the consequences of taking such a thing.

“Maybe later, but not now. Besides, you said you’d wipe my hands after the story so I can go read my own stuff?”

“Sweetie, I promise there’s going to be time for that later?”

Voila. The goalposts did in fact move.

“I want to read books by myself. Now. You promised,” Dawn tried to reason, having nothing more than Dayna’s supposedly good word to fight against. Yet it all felt like a game that she was destined to lose.

“Dawn…” Dayna’s patience was dwindling with each consonant as she crouched to her knees, holding out the bottle like a literal olive branch; one that was only a benefit to one party. “Take your juice.”

But Dawn had been pushed enough. The consequences of telling Katherine exactly what happened were starting to bother her less and less now. If she was told exactly what happened, maybe, just maybe Katherine would be on her side, or at least incredibly lenient. Dayna wasn’t playing fair and she knew it, and therefore Dawn was undoubtedly in the right.

“No.”

“No?” Dayna repeated. “Do I need to count?”

And feeling especially annoyed, Dawn fumed as passively as she could right back by spouting, “One. Two. Three. There, I counted for you. I said I didn’t want any juice, and I’m not listening to another story. I’m trying to be as nice as I can right now, but you’re making that pretty difficult…!”

Her argument was a mix of reasoning and sass, and unfortunately just a drop of that was all she needed to spoil her entire case, assuming there would even be one without. Dayna’s eyes went wide with surprise, likely astounded that Dawn had the audacity to be so bold.

“That is no way to talk to a grownup, young lady!” Sure enough, Dayna wasn’t happy. “Dawn, you march your bottom over here right this instant!”

She wanted her within arms reach, and the implications of that made her shiver.

“A…absolutely not,” Dawn muttered as she stepped back. “I-I made a fair point! You said I only had to listen to one story! If I take that juice I have to sit in that stupid circle again!”

“We do not say ‘stupid’!” Dayna reprimanded. “Dawn, do I need to come over there, or are we going to be a good girl and do as we’re told?”

“I’m doing exactly what you promised me! Waiting for my hands to be cleaned so I can read a book!”

“Does this mean I’m going to have to tell your Mommy how you’ve been misbehaving for me?” There it was, her best weapon to “control” Dawn.

But the novelty was gone and its excessive use dulled the edge it once had. Whether that meant Dawn was the idiot for no longer caring didn’t change what she was going to do. Constant exposure made her forget the fear, which is why she crossed her arms.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

There was a gasp, but neither from Dawn nor Dayna. Kailey, though, held her hands up to her mouth, watching with a sippy cup sneaked away in the crook of her arm, watching like it was a soap opera.

“Kailey, sweetheart?” Dayna turned her head, back to a professional smile that Dawn was learning to be maybe not as sincere as she once originally thought. “Could you go play with Liam and Tommy, please? Dawn and I need to have a little chat.”

A chat. Alone? With her? She spun her head, looking for a witness that wouldn’t be willing to disappear at just the beck and call of an Amazon, much less one with a nametag. But it was just them as Kailey quickly crinkled off.

“Okay…I’ve tried being nice, young lady…” Dayna started as she started to stand.

The moment she took her first towering, country-crossing step forward, Dawn worriedly blurted out, “I-I want Mommy!”

Dayna froze, but only for a second. “Mommy’s not here right now. Does she need to know that you’ve been bratty for me this whole time?”

“I…I don’t care! I want…I want Katherine!” It was an instinctual response that she was praying for like a get out of jail free card. Well, maybe not get out of jail, but escape whatever shit she’d just brewed with Dayna. But it wasn’t fair…! She did everything she was supposed to! Dawn quickly paced back, finally to the point that she was practically jogging down the aisles just to avoid Dayna.

“Dawn, come here right this instant!”

“No!” Dawn yelped back, occasionally weaving past the few Littles in the pen.

Shit! Shit! Why was this happening? Was she going to be punished? Was a literal stranger going to spank her? Spanking or not, she certainly wasn’t letting someone touch her privates or go anywhere near her nether regions. No matter how much Katherine and James liked to overstep her boundaries, it didn’t make it any more okay than when they did it. But Dayna, someone who Dawn had even less experience with; none, actually, she had absolutely no right to that. Besides, wasn’t she doing far more than Katherine asked her to?

Either way, she refused to be caught and she was willing to do anything to avoid it. She just needed something clever, because the only thing she had was playing musical chairs around a few different bookshelves that gave her enough time to outmaneuver Dayna. In theory, at least.

It wouldn’t last for long though, which is why her frantic and panicked mind resorted to a simple, stupid, yet hopefully effective trick.

Kailey was coming up as Dawn sprinted with a crinkle, busy sucking down her sippy cup as she watched curiously while the Little on the run raced right by her.

Like a soft glancing blow, Dawn’s hand shot out, lightly tapping Kailey’s bare shoulder while she zoomed on through. Only after she was about to round the corner again, she shouted:

“TAG! You’re it!”

For maybe just a fraction of a second she thought it hadn’t worked, like somehow she just tempted an adult into a juvenile game that no one would fall for. No one other than an actual kid, obviously.

But Kailey in the grand scheme unfortunately met Dawn’s expectations. Not more than a fraction of a second and it was a shrill, disappointed gasp from the girl.

“Heyyyy…! You didn’t say we were playing!” Kailey cried, but Dawn could hear the girl on her feet. Maybe she was chasing after Dawn, or maybe she wasn’t. She couldn’t have been that committed though because next Dawn heard her shout the same mantra, only it wasn’t Dawn she’d touched.

Now another Little was part of the game, and quickly another. Soon enough a whole flock of Littles were racing around the corner like it was chaos.

“Tag!”

“Tag, you’re it!”

“No backsies!”

“Liam’s it! Liam’s it!”

It didn’t change that Dayna wanted Dawn, but the learning corner was only so big. It didn’t change that the Amazon with only so much vision around entire bookshelves had to start being wary of darting Littles that could or could not have been the one she was looking for.

“Kids? Boys, girls, this isn’t where we play tag! It’s snack time, remember? Don’t you want another story?” Dayna tried to appeal to their sense of reason, but clearly she’d forgotten that somewhere along the way it’d been killed like their probable distaste for diapers. Pandemonium ensued and the one woman in charge couldn’t convince them to cease the commotion.

Dawn paused and raced, finding just the right moments to dart from one spot to another. She avoided Dayna much more deftly now, especially with a few other diversions racing around. They giggled and laughed, and Dayna was trying to scold and be stern, but it was hardly working.

But the madness could only last for so long.

“Boys, girls?” Dayna raised her voice, much more than she had before. It was iron-willed and stern, and the giggles and laughs stopped almost immediately. The pattering of feet stopped instantly and the game died on the spot. “Do I need to tell your Mommies and Daddies that you’ve been misbehaving?” She waited for just a few seconds, letting the suspense sink into their fragile hearts.

“Do I?” Her head panned across the room, like she was looking for someone to call her bluff. Probably someone other than Dawn, who was still at large, now hiding out of sight. There were quiet murmurs and whimpers. While a resistance was started quickly, so too was it killed.

“Dayna?” A voice out of sight spoke, and salvation had been reached. “Is everything okay?”

She needn’t hear another word. Dawn was careful to take the right path down an empty aisle, slipping by Dayna and right for the exit.

The joy in her voice was really just the relief from narrowly avoiding punishment, as Dawn cheered, “Katherine!” She raced right up to her and planted her feet right by the Amazon’s side, looking nothing but surprised.

“Katherine?” Dayna from the other end repeated, sounding with a bit of disbelief. “Katherine, you let her call you that?”

The Amazon far too late to the party with none of the story blinked, then stuttered, “N-no, I…it’s something we're working on, so… Is…is something wrong?”

Dawn’s eyes met Dayna’s for just a second, then she looked back up at the other giantess and spoke. “Well yes, actually… Katherine, I’m sorry, but your daughter has been misbehaving.”

“What?” Katherine sounded surprised, and the tone actually made Dawn feel uneasy, like it’d suddenly become an open and shut case without any presentation of the facts.

But before the train could run away with the verdict, Dawn blurted back, “No! She’s lying! Kath…” Dawn started to say, but she could see the wrinkle in Katherine’s brow, “M-Mommy!” Whatever it took to win her over. “I’ve been doing what she’s asked, but she’s doing stuff she’s not supposed to!”

For a second Katherine glanced over at her coworker, then down back at the Little. “Like what?”

“She doesn’t have permission, but she was touching me! She was giving me juice when I didn’t ask for it, and she’s been forcing me to sit and listen to stories instead of letting me read! She doesn’t have permission to do that! I gave in and did what she wanted, but she’s not even being fair! She said I could read after, but she’s just gonna make me listen to another one instead!”

“Katherine,” Dayna’s words stepped right over Dawn’s, “She was using a little bit of language, as well…”

“Dawn!” And yet somehow the tables had been turned entirely. It wasn’t even a defense. It wasn’t a rebuttal. Her argument was side-stepped just so this underhanded Amazon could claim something even more damning.

The disapproval in Katherine’s voice made Dawn recoil, but she doubled down. “She’s lying! Yes! I said ‘stupid’ once! But that’s not language, or whatever stupid thing you guys call it! Naughty words? I’ve been behaving! I’ve been calling you Mommy! All I want in return is peace and quiet! I don’t want to deal with someone like her!” she shouted, stomped and pointed at the other Amazon, finally pissed as could be.

“She…! She was going to check me! Then she was going to change me, and she’s not allowed to do that! No one is! I said ‘no’ and she wouldn’t listen! I…I tried! I really did!” She did try! She really fucking did!

Dayna stepped forward, walking over to the Amazon and Little, and Dawn immediately backpedaled herself behind Katherine’s leg like a tree she could chain herself to.

“Katherine, I can take care of her, okay? I know you’re busy, so just let me handle this?” Dayna offered, and Dawn was feeling more genuine fear to be trapped with this woman by the second.

And as horrible as it felt to say, or to ask or maybe even beg, Dawn muttered, “Mommy…please!”

Dawn’s defense had crumpled. Her legs that she used as walls turned around and fell out of reach, but only because an arm swept her from behind to lift her up, taking her to the same heights as the one she wanted nothing to do with.

“I appreciate it, Dayna, but I think I’m gonna take an early lunch.” Katherine smiled at her hesitant coworker, stepping into the penned area just to lift her deposited bag from the shelf. “Are those one of her bottles?” Katherine asked, pointing out what Dayna had in her hand.

“It is,” Dayna answered, handing it over. “But Katherine, I really don’t mind watching her?”

“I know you don’t, and I’m sure I’m gonna have to impose on you again,” Katherine spoke as she adjusted Dawn in her arm, more thankful than she would have liked to have been liberated. “I just think she needs some downtime right now, though. I’m sorry for giving you such a handful!” Dawn didn’t care if she was a handful. Whatever it took to be left alone.

“It’s fine, really!” Dayna waved her hand, looking pleased to find something related to workplace banter again.

“Thank you for watching her! If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to start that lunch break early!” Katherine announced, and with a miraculous turn of events, she was free.

“Th…thank you…” Dawn whispered against Katherine. The atmosphere and the situation had become far too much for her to handle. That instance of tag was her final wind at trying to prolong an inevitable horror she wasn’t ready to face. It may have been instigated by herself, but it wasn’t right that she had to bend over backwards for everything…!

“K-Katherine, I promise, I was doing what I was supposed to! I–”

“Dawn, please? Please call me Mommy?” Katherine reminded. It wasn’t directly from a place of wanting it for herself, but the undertones of conformity and appearance were also there. But most importantly, it was something that’d been asked of the Little, and she needed to do everything she could to maintain Katherine’s good graces. While she saved her, she didn’t look the happiest, either.

“Mommy,” Dawn spoke with the same emphasis, “I…I tried…! She…she just wasn’t cooperating!”

“Dawn…” Katherine sighed, taking them someplace where there were no people, of which Dawn noticed there seemed to be considerably more now. “I’m…I’m sure you did what you thought was right, but you know you can’t misbehave for other grownups.”

“I wasn’t…!”Dawn tried to stress. “I did what I was supposed to! I listened! I drank from those bottles when she gave them to me, even when I didn’t ask for them! She kept touching my diaper even when I told her not to! I was looking through those dumb books just to find something that I could tell you about! Like we promised! She made me put them down just to sit in a circle and listen to a story I didn’t even want to read! I did all of that! I did all of it for YOU!” Dawn finally heaved, feeling the air leaving her lungs.

“And…and when I finally said no…!” she winced, and hating herself for it, she sniffled. “She…she was gonna punish me… I was scared. I was so…so scared…!” It was James all over again. The painful spanking. The soap in her mouth. Stacy taking her clothes. Stacy smothering her face with hand soap, degrading her in front of the mirror in the bathroom… A needle up her ass, and all the same humiliation she had faced with that plump woman in the bathroom. The very first thing that sent her down this mortifying, unforgiving spiral.

She did it all to avoid that. To avoid all those things that made her into the mess she was, and trained her to be so fearful of every single person more than double her height. Her hands were clutching the fabric of Katherine’s uniform, and before she knew it her eyes were watering.

Everything thus far had made her doubt this world and everything that came with it. Everyone included. Katherine was no different, no more than what circumstances afforded her. If Dawn took just a second to think, she could conveniently turn this woman into yet another object of hatred, distrust and fear, but her selfish and frazzled nature is all that she needed to ignore the truth. Even if it was temporary, despite what Katherine had done herself, it wasn’t enough to deter Dawn from thinking she was safe for at least a little bit.

Katherine would scold her. She’d be stern and rocksteady. She could give punishments and she could be bossy. She lied and she was deceptive, but in spite of that she was still willing to offer mixed messages disguised as kindness, and Dawn wanted to be the fool. Just for a little bit, she wanted to fall for the illusions and convince herself that this was a refuge.

The hand on her back under the right lens was caring and assuring, and the crook between her neck and shoulder with the right filter was a safe haven for her head. If Katherine wanted to trick her, Dawn would trip over every wire and step on every plate. Anything if it meant taking just doses of Katherine’s reality, and none from no one else. Just while her mind and body recovered.

And her ache subsided for just a second once she felt the woman’s squeeze. “We’re gonna talk about this in a little bit. Understood?”

“Uh huh…”

In just a moment of weakness, Dawn could feel the fingers hook the back of her diaper and jeans, tugging them back. It was foolish, delusional and pathetic, but the only thoughts that registered in the Little’s mind was that it wasn’t Dayna. It wasn’t some complete stranger. It was someone she didn’t want looking at her private places, but it was the same person she was seeking rescue from.

The words made her feel small and shudder, but that was it. Nothing more, nothing less. The thought of how much more it could have been with Dayna made her feel far more uncomfortable.

“Just a little wet…”

 

---

20 - Dumb and Difficult

“...Where are we going?” Dawn finally mumbled over Katherine’s shoulder. It was a fair question. After all, with the way she was being held and carried, all Dawn could see were the places they had been rather than the ones they were headed to.

“We need to go to the break room. There’s a fridge that has the lunch I made for us in there,” Katherine explained as they walked, and Dawn had the misfortune of seeing the Amazons that had amassed while she spent the early day in total confinement. All of them, teasing her so unfairly. They didn’t give her looks, wave or say anything, but their hands carried books, thin and thick, wide and slim, fingering through pages just to tease the poor girl.

“I’m not hungry…” Dawn moped, only with an appetite for reading that she’d never get to satisfy. Had Katherine not made her agree to some stupid, pointless promise, the tiny girl would be leveraging their agreement to let her see some of the other books right about now.

“You’re gonna eat something…” Katherine calmly insisted, shuffling the Little sitting on her arm just a bit. “I know I didn’t pack you any snacks?”

“I still don’t wanna eat…” Dawn mumbled again. Knowing Katherine, it was either going to be some horrendously spicy food, or…or eggs, even? An egg salad? Something just to grind the girl’s gears. Everything just put her off to everything. Especially the warm feeling from her underwear. Underwear she couldn’t do anything about. But it wasn’t going to keep her from trying. Even if it was futile, it was still the principle. “I want to go change.”

“We’ll change you in a little bit, okay? Maybe after lunch.”

“Why just ‘maybe’?” Dawn sulked, “Why do you have to say it like it might not happen?”

“Because, Dawn, we can’t bring your entire nursery everywhere we go? I only brought so many of your diapers, sweetie.”

“Please…” After just being graciously rescued from one tyrant, the Little being carried right then wasn’t looking to totally sour the mood with the other. “I don’t wanna argue…I don’t need diapers…I’m not gonna go through however many you brought…!”

“I don’t want to make you upset either,” Katherine insisted as she rubbed the back of the girl’s head. “Okay, I promise we’ll change you after lunch. Deal?”

“...Fine.” Hollow victories.

At some point they reached a door, not that Dawn would know other than through audible cues. A digital beep of some kind and one turn of a door handle later and the pair were in a different room set aside from the public sphere.

“Oh hey Katherine!” A woman called, and Dawn just tried to admire the decor. Even their break rooms had just as much time and money spent on the design like the front end of things. Expensive looking ceiling designs with intricate wooden fixtures, polished tiled floors, and even beds of fresh greens to liven things up…

“Hi Lucy! Coffee time?”

“Coffee time…!” The Amazon sighed back, sharing in a mutual understanding. “I swear, it’s starting to become my vice… Can you believe that there’s Littles who drink this too? Well, once they can though, it’s mostly cream and sugar at that point!”

I use cream and sugar… Dawn looked bitter, but kept her voice down, trying to remember what a supposed blessing it was just to be here and not with Dayna.

“Mm…I don’t think I could handle mine tasting sweet,” Katherine agreed, but there was no slight or mocking comment.

And just when things felt as normal as they could get, “Oh! Oh my gosh! Is that your new daughter!?”

“Yep she is!” Katherine replied chipperly, and Dawn reclining herself a bit more could watch the fridge open from the corner of her eye. “Her name’s Dawn.”

“Well hi there, Dawn!” Lucy, a fellow coworker of Katherine’s pivoted around to a spot where Dawn couldn’t do anything but look at the woman. Her smile was wide and her cheeks were rosy. It was like another Dayna.

“Hi.” Dawn waved, then went mute again.

“Not so chatty, huh?” Lucy sounded like she was keeping the indifference in stride.

“It’s her first time here, so she’s a little shy…” Katherine explained apologetically, but the woman was already waving it off.

“No, no worries! Are you having lunch already?”

“Yes, we are,” Katherine nodded, and once she had whatever she needed, the door was closed. “It was my first time leaving her with someone else, so I think I missed her a little too much…” And maybe it was just playing things up to Lucy, but Dawn felt Katherine’s affectionate squeeze with her final words.

“Oh, Dayna? She’s on diaper duty today, isn’t she?”

Diaper duty…at least this one doesn’t try to make it sound like anything that it isn’t.

“She’s running the corner today, yeah. I just picked Dawn up from there, actually.”

“I’m sure she’s excited to be on vacation after today. Did Dawn get to hear any fun stories?”

“I…actually didn’t get the chance to ask her yet,” Katherine paused for a second, and Dawn hoped it would stay at that. “Did she read anything fun, Dawn?”

And just like that, the spotlight was on her. Not just Katherine, but another coworker now too.

“We read about frogs…” Frogs. Froggies, and all their friends in the pond. Stupid smiling faces about learning what all the other imaginary animals and insects do in their habitat. Call her a skeptic, and maybe just ignorant of the way animals live their lives in this dimension, but somehow Dawn still doubted that ducks mingled with playing cards.

“Ooou~!” Lucy wow’ed, slipping her eyes from Dawn and up to her guardian like they were trying to appeal to the excitement in the girl that didn’t exist. “That sounds cool! I know we have lots of stories about animals, so I think you’re gonna have a lot of fun here!”

“She really likes to read, actually,” Katherine included, and Dawn just wanted them to leave. If only she could say that without being chastised for being “rude.”

“Really? So like Mommy, like daughter, huh?” Lucy quipped, then laughed. “That’s so cute!” Cute? It was cute? Then did that mean Amazons liking to read was cute? Or was it for them somehow dignified? Intriguing? Fascinating? Something more than what Dawn got, surely. Fuck, the most it ever could be was cute, assuming what she had for reading variety now was all that she ever got. How badly she wanted to go home. Her actual home.

“And I promised her we were gonna go look at some books after we eat, so I’m sorry to cut this short…!” Katherine apologized, and Lucy only laughed.

“No, no! Go, go! I’m so sorry for butting in! Bye Dawn, it was nice meeting you!”

Thankfully, they were gone and moving elsewhere. They left with a lunch in hand, but now a nugget of confusion was sprouting in Dawn’s head.

“...Hey,”

“Hm?” Katherine rubbed her back.

“Are…are we really looking at the books?”

“After we eat?” Katherine cocked her head a little closer. “You’ll need to eat something if you want to, though.”

“...But I didn’t keep my promise…” Behave and find a book to tell Katherine about. That was the deal, as dumb as the second half was. So was the first, but it was more reasonable than telling the girl to get down and dig deep through a sea of sewage misunderstood as reading material.

“But you tried, didn’t you?” Katherine reminded, striking a weird chord with the girl. “I wish you could have behaved the whole time, but I know this is a lot for you…so I can be patient. As long as you’re trying.”

Trying felt wrong to say, or at least Dawn didn’t want to admit to anything like it. She wasn’t trying to accept any of this. She wasn’t trying to deal with diapers or submit herself to so many attacks of embarrassment and humiliation. She was just trying to bide her time. She wasn’t behaving, she was just enduring. What mattered most was being true to herself, but hearing the way others saw it from the outside looking in didn’t feel great either…

“Besides, it sounds like you found a story you liked, right? If you eat your lunch we can look for something about frogs?”

“I don’t like frogs,” Dawn admitted in a burst of honesty. “We just had to listen to a stupid story about them… Some other person liked them. That’s the only reason why…”

“Yeah? Why didn’t you like the story? Because you don’t like frogs?”

“No,” Dawn stressed, “I-I didn’t not like it because of frogs! It’s because it was just…just some boring story that you read to kids! It wasn’t advanced; there wasn’t any substance! That’s all those books! Just…just mindless, pointless words on paper…”

“Uh-huh?” Katherine nodded and listened, surprisingly, and Dawn was half expecting the admonishment that never came. “We’ll find something you like, I’m sure. And I’m sure it’s not all bad? Don’t worry, I can be a picky reader, too!” Katherine chuckled, and Dawn hung in her arms with just as little hope as she had a few seconds before. Holding out hope for anything in that tiny prison was nothing but a fool’s errand. Trying to convince any Amazon of that was impossible. Dawn liked reading, but maybe Katherine wasn’t seeing it that way. It was just Dawn who likes “reading.” Reading as much as “coloring” is when you let a toddler scribble inside, around and outside the lines.

“Where are we going now?” Dawn finally pressed on Katherine’s shoulder just to sit herself up in her arm to look around. With jealousy and envy, she spotted tables off to the sides, spotted with folks in chairs, quietly absorbing enjoyment, entertainment and information from pages and pages of the deemed forbidden fruit for Littles. Some had computers out. Laptops and phones. Notebooks and pencils and pens… Some were students, maybe? Just like…Dawn.

“Remember that big tree you saw from the car?” Katherine rubbed her shoulder, “I wanted to take you there. They have tables we can eat at.”

“You let people eat here, too?” Dawn asked with a sideways look. If she wasn’t attacking it from that angle, she’d be far too pissed about Amazons not only being the only ones allowed access to real books, but to even risk food and drinks near them as well. Meanwhile, Littles were discounted for simply being too small.

“Yes, but not while they’re reading. That’s a very important rule,” Katherine explained carefully, despite there not being much to say.

And while they walked, or rather, Katherine walked them both, Dawn was unfortunate enough to witness some folks who didn’t rely on the Library’s endless services so heavily. With an uneasy feeling in her stomach, she watched one Amazon in particular, quiet and focused on her reading, pausing just to scribble something here or there in her adjacent notebook. And yet, all the while using her foot like a pendulum, quietly and slowly pushing a stroller back and forth. Inside it was of course a man, not a boy, gagged by a pacifier with shut eyes, hiding under some stupid, soft-looking blanket covered in trucks and cars.

Christ, it actually looked like he was sleeping. Slumbering. Like it was somehow normal. Like he could be at ease enough to actually fall asleep in a public place. Like it didn’t matter that his entire life was over likely before it’d even reached the halfway point. Like…!

“--Look, Dawn, see?”

In spite of seeing the horror stained in her vision, blinking once was enough to wash the echoed horror out of her eyes. There it was, the tree. Sitting on a large oasis of bright green grass on a short, sloping hill, the centerpiece was a massive tree made up of girthy and thick, winding roots that skidded across the surface before disappearing into the ground. The only separation between what was natural and manmade was a circle of large, uniform stones establishing the perimeter.

A dense shade was offered by the overarching head of leaves supported by countless branches, but allowing slivers of sunlight to slip on through. Folks were chatting and eating, just like Katherine said. There weren’t any Littles in this spot though, thank goodness. Just to watch someone so…complacently suffering was enough to make the girl’s blood boil and her mind to panic. And yet while the living nightmares were dotted all around her, at least she had a pretty tree to look at.

“I still can’t believe we have this here…!” Katherine marveled at the sight. It was more than double her height, which meant Dawn was but a mere fraction to it. “What do you think? Isn’t it pretty?”

“Mm…” Dawn nodded, keeping her feelings reserved. She wanted to believe that even a place like this couldn’t pervert nature itself, but operating on assumptions so far had only shocked the girl even more when supposed absolute truths were nothing more than fallacies.

“Did you wanna pick where we sit?” Katherine offered, and Dawn, far from wanting the opportunity, pointed off to a corner anyway with at least some kind of sculpture as a usable privacy shade. As a bonus, it left at least a full table’s width from any others that were sitting there.

“Is…is it okay for you to be eating out here?” Normal people were nearby, either eating or reading, but normal people meant a public place. Wasn’t it weird for a worker to be eating in the same space? Separation of spheres, or something?

“It’s okay, we’re allowed,” Katherine assured. And without asking, Katherine took her seat, meaning Dawn took hers as well. Right on her lap.

“Are there…any…higher chairs?” Dawn carefully asked, but it didn’t change how heavily she was toeing the line. Two letters less and Katherine probably would’ve been overjoyed to hear such a question.

“Sorry, sweetheart, we don’t have chairs here like the one you have at home,” an apologetic explanation came, and Dawn’s modicum of hope had gone. “Is it okay if you sit in my lap?”

“...Uh-huh.” There was hardly anything else to say. If she refused there wouldn’t be an alternative. Katherine would be put into a difficult situation. As appealing as that was, it meant delaying Dawn’s food, and no food meant no books; the one reason for experiencing all this suckiness.

So she sat in her lap, watching all the luggage unload on the table. First was the diaper bag, then it was slid to the side. Next though were a couple plastic containers and a bottle of water. An Amazon bottle of water. No nipple to go with it.

“And I made sure to keep one cold for you too,” the Amazon added as Dawn watched a baby bottle descend from the heavens, loaded with more of the same juice she’d been getting all day, only freshly chilled now.

“...Thank you,” and Dawn accepted the drink just to keep her hands full with an excuse to do nothing else. And dare she ask, “What did you bring?”

“I made a…salad! And a sandwich, too. You can share with me.”

One lid after another came off, and true to Katherine’s words, Dawn could see what looked like greens in one container and bread in the other. The sandwich came out first though, which was an uncanny similarity Dawn could remember, albeit much bigger than the one she was served.

“This is the one I made you yesterday. You liked it, right?”

Like was a very strong word. Her body simply needed food. Sustenance. Energy because she didn’t have a deathwish and believed in at least living just to reach the other side. “Yeah…it’s fine.”

That was more than enough for Katherine to bring the food to her mouth, and Dawn finally bit off a corner. True to her word, it had the same taste, albeit slightly more bitter than she remembered.

“It’s not too much, is it?” Katherine was already asking the same time a surprise napkin wiped away the imaginary crumbs off Dawn’s face. “I put a little seasoning on mine…” she said in an almost apologetic voice.

“It’s…” Dawn choked down a small cough, “fine,” and then took a swig of her cold juice to wash it down.

“Once it’s time to go food shopping, I’ll make sure we get some stuff you’ll wanna eat, okay?” Then Katherine took a bite herself. “I’ll need to remember to ask James about getting you some of those Little Lunches…”

“I don’t need anything special, this is fine,” Dawn tried to insist. The moment she found something livable was the same time she sought for the status quo. Nothing more needed to change or slip further than it already had.

“You don’t need to be so reserved, honey? We just want you to have some things that you’d like too?”

“And I like this sandwich, so it’s fine. I don’t need anything else.” Dawn spoke firmly, and Katherine didn’t push. Not any more than offering her an occasional bite from the shrinking sandwich.

“Can I have some of the salad, too?” Dawn asked of her own accord, purely for the sake of variety. She looked up at the fork moving to and from the food and Katherine’s mouth, all above her as the motions ensued.

“You can try it?” Katherine accepted, somewhat. It was a loaded answer with lingering effects and conditions. “I think there’s a dressing on this you’re gonna think is yucky, honey…”

And Dawn, just as ignorant and stubborn as ever, insisted, “I’ll be fine.”

Just like breakfast that morning, Katherine fed her a bite with a fork held out to her mouth. With a small bushel of greens, sliver of onion and chunk of tomato, all dressed in some kind of unifying substance, Dawn took the mouthful and swallowed.

Her face felt like it was imploding. Her lips were folding in and the prickly, sour, bitter taste was traveling up and down her system like a frantic chicken with its head cut off. The only thing keeping her in Katherine’s lap was the very Amazon’s arm around her stomach.

“Drink your juice, sweetie?” Katherine helpfully reminded, and not a second later and the girl was self-soothing her tongue with cold, refreshing fruit-like juice.

“Wh-why is all your stuff so bitter? And so…so spicy?” Dawn tiredly complained, taking another bite of sandwich as she started to feel bitter herself. “You people even make your food to discriminate against Littles?”

“Dawn, it’s just what Amazons like? We like sour and bitter stuff. Just how Littles like sweet things?”

It was a pointless discussion because that’s the only place it could have gone, and Katherine skipped right to the end. Instead Dawn was watching the tree, angling her head up high just to see the entirety of it.

“Do you like it?” Katherine smiled down at her.

“It’s…whatever,” Dawn turned her head away sheepishly. “You must, though?” After all, Dawn spent last night briefly on the back deck while Katherine watered her garden.

“I like it a lot!” The Amazon answered honestly and without reservation. “You know, if I could, I’d want one just like it at our house. I’d want it right in the center of the backyard, too.”

“And do what with it, just look at it?” Dawn, a person hardly of greens, but not a denier of their use, openly debated. “Wouldn’t it like…suck up all the nutrients, or something?” That was common sense, right?

“That’s a very good point,” Katherine complimented the thought with a rub on her head. “But there’s plenty of food for all the plants and a tree. That’s a little silly though, huh? Even plants need to eat, too.”

“Yeah, like photosynthesis. I know.”

“Uh-huh, very good,” Katherine praised her again, despite Dawn not looking for any of it. “But they need more than just the sun, you know? Flowers, veggies, trees, and everything else that lives in the ground also has roots. You know how trees have branches?” she pointed out all the forking limbs of thinner and thinner wood, “Imagine all that, but also in the ground! They’re like a bunch of straws that like to suck up the water in the ground and other yummy stuff that they need to grow. Does that make sense?”

Yeah. I know already. “Yeah. It does.”

“I like growing all sorts of stuff.”

“For free food?” Dawn could at least see the use in that.

“Mmm…maybe!” Katherine laughed, “I never thought of it like that! It doesn’t have to be something we can eat, though. I like big plants, small plants, colorful ones and silly ones. As long as I get to start with the seed.”

“Why just the seed?” If memory served, Dawn could always remember her mom getting flowers, though that just meant bringing back pre-grown ones from the store just to plop in the dirt. Did they even do much growing after that? It definitely didn’t make much sense to her, but everyone had their hobbies… Katherine included.

“...Because that way I get to grow it all on my own,” Katherine spoke, and Dawn could hear the smile. “It’s a very good feeling when you can raise something, because you get to see them from start to finish. Going from just a seed, and then a little bit of green…getting bigger and bigger…until tiny buds start to form, and blossom into lots of pretty flowers.”

“So you just like the process?”

“Kind of!” Katherine smiled, then put them both through the motions of taking another bite. “All the plants in the garden need a little bit of care and love for them to grow big and strong. They can’t get all the water they need on their own, so that’s my job. Sometimes there can be bugs or weeds that can make them feel sick, so then it’s up to me to fix them and make them feel all better.”

Dawn took another swig from her bottle. “Sounds like a lot of work.”

The Amazon holding her chuckled as her first response.

“It is a bit of work, but if anything is worth doing, then it won’t be easy.”

Well, not exactly. Dawn could think of a million different things worth doing that were in fact easy. Case and point, brushing your teeth every night and day. So simple, yet it saves your teeth from a lifetime of dental issues…

“...Dawn?”

Odd. The pause there was before speaking put the Little a bit on edge. “...Yeah?”

“Can we talk about what happened with Dayna, now?”

Ugh. And just like that, the next forced bite of Katherine’s sandwich felt just a bit more bitter.

Dawn was brief and fast, just so she could fill her mouth with juice. “It’s her fault, not mine. I did what I was supposed to.”

“Honey, I’m not mad… I just want to understand what happened?”

Finally, for once, Dawn could see the most obvious trap if there ever was one. Maybe she wasn’t mad, and maybe she was speaking calmly and soothingly, but that didn’t change the certainty there’d be consequences anyway. Punishment was sure to follow for telling the truth. Undoubtedly. Call her a coward, but the thought of another spanking made the girl visibly uncomfortable.

It was a trap, definitely, but Dawn was supposed to talk. She was supposed to tell her story. Share her frustrations, and just thinking of them was getting her riled up again. “She…she just kept…getting in the way!”

“Mhm? How was she doing that?” It was a neutral question, completely without any indication whether she felt differently or not. As far as Dawn could tell, she really did have the entire floor.

“Just…the way she talked to me. The stuff she made me do…! Did you not tell me to go looking for a book to read, or something?!”

“I did,” Katherine nodded, agreeing simply.

“Well Dayna didn’t get that I guess. You…you gave her all that stuff in that bag, and she wouldn’t stop bothering me! As soon as I’m reading, she makes me take some juice that I didn’t even ask for! And after she gives it to me, she says, ‘You can have food or drinks with a book’!’” Dawn scoffed with a pissy look. “She GAVE me a drink just to force me to stop reading!”

“Do you think she may have thought you were just thirsty?”

“I–I don’t know? But it doesn’t even matter! Because she kept doing it! And then I started to say ‘no,’ but she wouldn’t listen to me! She wouldn’t take that as an answer! She…she just kept holding you over my head! Like she was gonna tell you what a brat I was being, or something! A-and wait, that’s not even everything she did!” She was on a streak and her memory was flipping stones in a flurry of residual rage.

“Okay…take your time. I’m listening,” Katherine said as Dawn was too driven to even care about the hand on her back.

“There was some ki–... There was another person who showed up when I was reading; some…some Little,” it felt wrong to say. Horrible, but in what other way could she communicate it without giving in to what these people wanted? What, call her a fucking kid? “There…a Little was bothering me. She kept talking to me and trying to get me to do stuff…!”

“Were you nice to her?”

“Yes! I was nice! I even went to the corner just so no one would bother me! But she said Dayna told her to come over! She made her walk over to me just to bother me!”

“Dawn, maybe Dayna just wanted to help you make a playmate?” The Amazon softly reasoned.

“No! Because I told Dayna that I didn’t want to be bothered! I just wanted to be left alone! But she kept doing stuff! She…she even touched me!”

“Touch…?” Katherine’s voice was slow and hesitant. “She…touched you?”

“Yes! When she wasn’t supposed to! You said you were gonna check on me. But she did it anyway! She kept grabbing my–the stupid diaper! She pulled down my pants and just did whatever she wanted! Like it didn’t even matter what I said or did!”

“Sweetie, when you say ‘touch’, you mean when she checked your diaper, right?”

“Yes!” Christ, Katherine, what else could it mean?!

A was low and quiet, but a sigh left the Amazon’s mouth. “O…okay. She checked your diaper and you weren’t comfortable with that, right?”

“No, I wasn’t! And aren’t you too?” It sucked appealing to her on whims and means that Dawn denied and was against, but she needed support. She needed to be justified. “Didn’t you say that only people we trust can do that stuff? I don’t trust her! Not now and not ever!”

“Dawn…Dayna is someone I’ve worked with for a long time now? She’s safe to trust.”

“Well she isn’t!” Dawn huffed and crossed her arms. “She was being…ugh, so manipulative! She was making me do stuff just so she could make me do other things! She gave me juice so I couldn’t read, then used that as an excuse just to get me sitting in some stupid story time circle! Then she promised I could go back after the story, but then just tried to give me another bottle! She didn’t listen! Nobody listens!”

“I’m listening right now, aren’t I?” Katherine leaned over just to get her head a bit closer.

“Maybe…but is that gonna change anything? It doesn’t make me any more right, does it? Are you gonna go ask Dayna what happened next? Because whatever she says has more credibility than me, right?”

Frustration was a good motivator for the stomach, because Dawn was already reaching for another bite.

“Honey, you need to know that what you have to say always matters, okay? It matters to me and James. Just like what you’re saying right now matters.”

“And that’s the problem! You…you and James can say whatever you want, fine,” it was a whole other issue entirely, “but what happens when I’m around someone like Dayna? What happens when she doesn’t care about what I say?”

“I’m positive she cared, Dawn. Dayna was just doing what anyone would? It’s our job to take care of you guys when you’re there?”

“Even if I don’t consent to it? Even when I tell her not to?!”

“It’s because she’s not just going to ignore you, Dawn? What if something happened? What if you got hurt, or you needed a grownup to take care of something?”

“Then I would take care of it myself!” Dawn raised her voice, and a hand on her shoulder brought the levels right down. “So what, she gets in trouble if I don’t let her baby me? She was doing stuff you were gonna do! I could have asked you for a drink when you came by! I would have said I needed to change when it was your break! She had no business and didn’t care that I told her not to!”

“And you’d really want to be in a wet diaper until I came and checked in on you?”

“N-no! Don’t twist it like that!” Dawn cried, “It’s not the same and you know it! I already said I don’t trust her, and no one is allowed to touch me or…or change me!”

“But how about when I change you?”

“I don’t want that either! But I can’t stop you, and there’s no one that can stop you from doing that to me…! So…at least with someone else, there’s supposed to be you that can stop it from happening…” It always sucked. It fucking sucked so much to keep on confronting the same, undying sense of helplessness. It wouldn’t die because as long as she was stuck here, that feeling would be validated. The only sense of empowerment she could have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting was by living vicariously through the Amazons that’d kidnapped her. It was supposed to be them that put a stop to the injustices committed against her, so what was the point if they listened to outside opinions first and foremost before their very own captive? The one that they “swore” to protect?

And maybe it was late, and it certainly wasn’t needed, but both Amazon arms came around Dawn, pulling her against Katherine’s torso.

“I know it feels tough…I know it’s scary being in a new place with new people, but I promise you, Dawn, I wouldn’t ever put you in a place that I didn’t feel comfortable with. I know we made a promise, and it makes me really happy how you were trying so hard to keep it, you know?”

Happy, great. It didn’t change the fact what things had become, though.

“But as much as that makes me happy, I don’t want you to make trouble for others because of it, okay?”

It felt like a harsh one-eighty, which is why Dawn spun her head up with an incredulous look. “But–!” Dawn tried to speak, but Katherine calmly continued. It wasn’t even a rude interruption, it was simply the woman speaking with such inertia that the Little felt compelled to go quiet.

“I think Dayna just really wanted you to fit in, sweetie. She wanted you to make a friend, feel included, and have a good time? Would you ever want someone you’re looking after to feel sad or left out?”

“No, I wouldn’t, but this is different than that!” Dawn wanted to be left alone! And great, what an opportune moment where she could have pointed that out, but just missed.

“And Dawn, be honest with me: were you using bad words?”

“N-no! I–”

“Dawn?” Katherine interrupted, much more sternly. “Don’t make me turn you around to look up at me. Answer honestly. Were you using bad words?”

She…she wasn’t! She didn’t say anything bad! No fuck, no shit, no ass, no nothing of the sort that she’d been reprimanded for so many times already! What was this, coercing a false confession? There was no crime, yet Katherine talked like it was certain. Like…like Dayna could only speak in absolute truths.

“I…I said stupid! That’s all I said! I didn’t swear! Not since…not since last night!”

“Dawn…no bad words means no bad words,” Katherine emphasized with disappointment.

“It doesn’t count!” Dawn legitimately whined. “I did what you told me! Why can’t I even say that? What, can I not say ‘dumb’ either? Is that too much of a bad word?”

“If you know that it’s a mean thing to say, you shouldn’t be saying it at all,” Katherine softly scolded. “I’m very proud that you did stop saying so many naughty things, but I know you can do better, sweetie? I know that you have so many nice things to say?”

The disconnect couldn’t have felt any greater, because Dawn most certainly did not have anything nice to say. Whatsoever. Henceforth she wouldn’t be saying anything at all, apparently. Her language had been thoroughly policed once already and now it was time for crackdown number two. How unfair. How so unbelievably un-fucking fair.

“I’m not mad, and you’re not in trouble, but we’re not putting up with bad behavior anymore, Dawn. Do I make myself clear?”

“It’s… Fine! Yes! You do! But why do I have to get in trouble for doing what I’m told?”

“Because, Dawn, if James and I aren’t there, then you need to listen to the grownup in charge. Even if we make a promise, that doesn’t give you an excuse to misbehave or backtalk.”

It was all just framing. She was being framed for crimes she didn’t commit. It was all for the sake of self-defense and preservation. And it sucked, just to think for even a fraction of a second that Katherine was on Dawn’s side. And yet, even with them alone in just the company of themselves, the woman still wouldn’t crack under the many fallacies that Dawn just couldn’t shine a light on. “So…so even if I think it’s a bad idea. If it’s something that’ll hurt me, you still want me to listen? You still want me to just give in?”

And a pair of lips pressed against the top of her head, right before hearing, “James and I will never put you in a situation like that. Just listen and behave, okay?”

“I’m done eating…” Dawn moped, crossing her arms one last time.

“Okay,” and Katherine graciously moved on, “Drink your juice while I finish my food, okay? Then we’ll go look at some books.”

And again, Dawn felt that the chance had somehow been squandered by their little heated debate, yet apparently not. Katherine didn’t seem to let grudges linger, not nearly as long as they admittedly did with Dawn. By the time the Amazon could be as cool as a cucumber, Dawn would still be trying to stomach the frustration and negative feelings, much less truly start to digest them. Her frame of mind was still stuck in a bitter place that would never be so gracious to herself like Katherine was being.

She knew she was in the right, and Dayna was wrong. Katherine was misguided, but she was wrong about so many other things too. And yet, Dawn couldn’t seem to reason with any of that. Dawn just didn’t understand. Dawn did the wrong things even when she did as she was told. How many times would the goal post move? How many times would it shift? It was constant bouts of self-sacrifice, and the only compromises were just Dawn letting herself slip more and more.

Regardless, Katherine got to focus on eating, and Dawn was able to keep to herself; the very thing she wanted since the start of today.

“So we’re really going?”

 

---

“Mhm!”

“Do I get to touch them?”

“You need to promise to be gentle.”

“I am gentle! I–! I…I promise, I’ll be gentle.” Did she somehow think Dawn’s books back home could withstand nuclear warheads and she didn’t understand the concept of paper being torn easily?

“Okay, I believe you,” Katherine laughed, and Dawn was simply too on edge, dearly hoping that this was going to be what she was actually promised. Finally, something just as advertised without any cruel or mean tricks. “We’ll look for a little bit, but then I need to change you before my break is over, okay?”

“Fine, fine. Can we go now?” The experience of wearing a wet diaper hadn’t left her, but even the most tortured could endure something so simple if it meant being offered food on the brink of starvation.

“Is there somewhere you wanted to look at first?”

“Fantasy,” Dawn blurted out. Something. Anything, just so they didn’t waste their precious time deliberating on where to go.

“Fantasy? Mmm, okay!” All it took was a hum and thoughtful look around, and Katherine with a blueprint of the building seemingly in her back pocket, departed and moved with purpose.

Finally, Dawn with a personal escort had been sprung from jail and was about to have the time of her life. What a sweet reprieve it would be from all the baby books and propaganda that place was filled with. There wouldn’t be anything out here about the diapered divas battling the potty monster or Hansel and Gretel finding a daycare in the middle of the forest.

The genuine excitement was enough to shield her eyes from all the Amazons getting to roam about the library so freely, including all the fake parents carrying their Littles off, likely to a particular corner ruled by an evil witch of an Amazon.

“Okie-dokie… See everything on these two shelves?” Katherine pointed from floor and nearly to ceiling of two long and tall faces of pure literature. Dawn nearly squealed.

The spines were titles, the covers looked textured. Hardcovers, paperbacks, authors and more. The images she could see weren’t pastels, some were wonderfully plain, and others seemed modest.

“That one!” Dawn hurriedly pointed, and Katherine laughed, looking delighted as could be to pull one from the shelf. Katherine leaned over and slipped the book from its socket, leaving the hivemind of words and wisdom to be united with Dawn. It was big, certainly. Amazon big. A bit much, but Dawn could easily stomach that if it was just like the real thing in every other sense.

The synopsis! The synopsis!

Dawn desperately fought the urge to touch it right then herself.

A Tale of Ten Towers, by Sofia Suffix

She was practically bouncing like a junkie just about to get their best fix yet.

Sofia, please don’t disappoint…!

What unfortunately put a damper on things though was when Katherine robbed her of the chance to open the cover herself. Fine, whatever, Dawn would get the chance later, but she couldn’t necessarily complain about getting straight to the reading part.

But Katherine stopped right after opening up the cover. Then she muttered, “Let me just take a look at something, honey…”

And Dawn watched what she was looking at, but it was practically otherworldly to her. Stamped on the inside had to have been somewhere around a twenty-ish letter code of some kind. Sixteen? It was a seemingly scrambled string of letters and numbers with some symbols, even. It made absolutely no sense to Dawn, hence her frown, but also including Katherines?

Before Dawn could even touch the page though, Katherine gently closed the cover and slid it back into place. She was speechless for a moment, ready to wonder why the hell she had gone and done that, but Katherine said so herself.

“Why don’t we take a look at a different one?” Katherine smiled, but it didn’t add to any explanation for her decision.

“Wh-what? Why? What’s wrong with that one? We didn’t even read the back?”

“I didn’t like some of the things that were in that book,” Katherine explained simply, and Dawn gave her a weird look.

“W-well, like what?” Hate speech? Radical ideologies that’d somehow transmit indoctrinated teachings to the reader? The only acceptable reason for putting it back was that, and nothing else. No other reasoning would excuse it.

“Mmm…naughty grownup stuff,” Katherine was fast and quick with her words, like she was trying to shift focus fast and quick.

Naughty…grownup…?

“You mean like se–”

“Ahp!” Katherine gasped before Dawn could finish. “Dawn? No naughty words, understood?”

Did the book have sex, was that it? How did Katherine even know? She was a self-described avid reader, but surely that didn’t mean she had read everything that there is to read in this place? You’d need three lifetimes and then some, just maybe.

“M-my bad. But wait, I wanted to look at that book.”

“We’ll find a better one, okay?” Katherine was already stepping out of its reach, and Dawn watched her forbidden knowledge miraculously disappear.

Normally the loss of opportunity or being told she couldn’t do something she knew that she could handle would put her right back into a pissy mood, but being allowed to come into close contact with legitimate literature just felt too good.

“That one,” Dawn pointed out a new title, “Silver Stars,” feeling much more eager to take the book herself this time.

And like a well-oiled machine, or one of the book buddies that Katherine always worked on, she retrieved the book, sitting it in her hands. And just to get the feeling, Dawn, despite Katherine needing no help whatsoever, joyfully partook in peeling back the front cover. She nearly cried.

The flimsy, cardboard cover was just like at home, if not a bit tougher, but that was a bonus, not any kind of mocking detriment like it would’ve been at the Little’s corner. Instead, Dawn got the feel of the thin, textured paper with her fingernail as they flipped the first page up to a similar…long and complicated code.

“C-can we take this one over to a table so I can–?” Dawn tried to set up their next destination with a treasure in hand, but twice her expectations had been resurrected and removed because Katherine with a small, disapproving look started to put the book back.

“Wait! What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” Dawn begged for an explanation, but watched as her book slipped back into the shelf.

“I didn’t like some of the things I saw there either,” Katherine frowned. On some level she must have known what this was doing to Dawn, but it didn’t change the impression that the Little figured the Amazon was just being too overprotective.

“Katherine, whatever it is, I can read it! I’ve read plenty of books before!”

“I’m sure you have, honey, but some of these stories just don’t seem very appropriate…”

Time was ticking and not a single book had yet to be experienced or even read just a tiny bit…! “How can you even tell? Y-you’re not even reading them!”

“Did you see all those letters and numbers on both books?”

“Yeah?”

“We call those  ‘Sequence Series,’” Katherine explained slowly and carefully, like Dawn had regressed into being a preschooler again. “Those codes can tell us what a story is about and what kind of themes or genres might be in them.”

“Wh-what?” Didn’t having a fantasy section count as enough? They tagged the contents of their books individually, more specifically than that? “Let me see. Show me.”

“Okay,” Katherine had no hesitation and grabbed a new book from the shelf. She turned the page, and in the same fashion as the others this one was another string of gibberish. “See that code?” her finger landed on the one thing that was actually on the page. “We use sixteen letters and numbers to keep track of what this story is like!”

“H-how?” Dawn peered down at the page, finding it no less insightful than the other two were. She wasn’t even seeing a pattern. All three books that were in the fantasy section should have at least one unifying trait, right?

“See these first four letters here?” Katherine traced her finger.

“Y…yeah?” Even the first four seemed to have no meaning, yet Katherine spoke like it was the easiest thing to understand.

“That tells us the year and place when this book was written.”

A location for the author? A time of completion? A year…and an address? All in just four spaces? Using only four characters? There weren’t even any numbers? How was a number stored in this?

“So these two letters mean it was written about…twenty years ago. That’s a long time, huh?” Katherine chuckled, and Dawn tried to focus on the teaching moment. “And then these two right after that mean it was written in a place called Catalon. Does that make sense?”

“I…guess…” Dawn murmured in a shy voice. How did a ‘Z’ and ‘Q’ imply a time period two decades ago, and letters and symbols like ‘#’ and lowercase ‘I’ indicate a place called Catalon? They weren’t even an abbreviation?

“Now the next twelve spots tell us all about the story. These three let us know there’s a hero…these two say it has a little bit of mystery, and…mm. This one says it’s a little scary, so how about we find a different one?”

Horror was obviously manageable for the girl, but she was still feeling overwhelmed by the system, yet driven to try and understand it.

“W-wait, so…” Dawn tried to trace her finger. “So…so these three characters mean it has mystery themes?”

“Yup! Very good!” Katherine was quick to praise, but the shine missed Dawn completely who was still trying to cement the understanding. She tried not to let her confusion get the best of her. Katherine was so casual and confident with her words, it only made Dawn more hesitant as she looked at it over and over. It was all a continuous line of letters, numbers and symbols. There were no spaces or breaks, and yet Katherine was somehow able to piece it apart like it was nothing?

“Okay…” Dawn said quietly, and Katherine was putting away the book and pulling out another.

And almost immediately when they flipped to the sequence series, Dawn spotted the same chain further along the 12 characters.

“Wait, so that says there’s mystery in this one?” Dawn pointed it out, suddenly too preoccupied to even enjoy the touch and feel of the textured paper. Just like she remembered. It wasn’t smooth or rigid like all the ones back at the baby corner. What a joy, though. Not only did she get to interact with genuine books, but she was learning, too!

But then Katherine made a noise, like she was proud of Dawn for trying, but she was un-arguably incorrect. “Oh, good eye, Dawn! But actually, right here are two different ones. It doesn’t say mystery, but actually this one says it has dragons, and this one says it has two main characters.”

“...Oh…” the disappointment and embarrassment was hard to hide. She felt so certain, and yet she couldn’t have been more wrong. “Then…what about the first three after the location? So these…?” And just like Katherine explained, Dawn traced out the following three spaces after the first four.

And instead of making the answer direct, the Amazon started with, “You’re really close!” It was like textbook childcare. Praise them right before delivering the bad news. “This time though it’s only just two characters, not three.”

“But…how do you know?” Dawn frowned, looking down at the page. “How do you know where the spaces are, or…which ones stop and start?” Was she missing something obvious? Sure, Katherine had more experience with this, but…it just looked like nothing?

“Well…sometimes you can just recognize them.” Recognize? Like Dawn just tried and horribly failed at doing? “Or, what we can do is take the first letter and the fourth, and that tells us the kind of ordering sequence the letters use…” Katherine’s voice was slow and careful, pointing each and every piece of the puzzle out, but the confused look on Dawn’s face was reflecting in the librarian’s eyes.

Suddenly Katherine was looking sympathetic, almost as if she embarked on a subject far too complex for poor little Dawn. “But that’s a lot of tough stuff to remember, huh?” she quickly pepped up her voice. “You wanna keep looking for a story?”

It was an unexpected detour that left Dawn feeling oddly clueless. It was the first time something in this dimension had intellectually stumped her, other than that stupid bread tie thing from that one morning… Obviously if she tried hard enough, she could figure it out, though. This sequence series stuff, that is. The bread tie too, of course…

“I guess, yeah,” Dawn nodded, and was given the privilege of trying to seek out more books. And as They searched, more so Katherine skimming, peeking at the multi-digit code on each one, disapproving of each one someway and somehow, the Little in her arms was starting to fidget. As more time went on without a result, the girl was feeling more and more anxious

“Don’t you guys sort by those codes, or something? Is it really just sorted by random?”

“Some libraries do that,” Katherine answered while she filtered through book after book, “but that’s what all our special helpers are for!” she looked up to the ceiling, and by coincidence one of the drones was quietly sliding by on its rails. “It’s a little tricky for us to remember, but these guys can remember where each and every book is, and they remember that long line of letters, too! Soon though we will be organizing our books like that,” she chuckled, “but it’s a lot of books to move around!”

After enough time Dawn was losing hope that there’d be anything Katherine might approve of, and that was only adding to her worries about Amazon books altogether. Was it just a bad section? It had to be! It’s not like Amazon teens and preteens went straight into text about murder, politics, and sex?

“Mmm…oh! This one looks good!”

“What? What is it?” Dawn, not even paying attention anymore finally glanced down at the book she was holding.

“This is an older one…” Katherine passively mentioned, finally skimming through the actual text. It was all ink-letter print; some offshoot of Times New Roman. Times New Amazon? Just maybe. Either way it was just like Dawn expected, and she wanted to consume it so badly. “Helmsman of the East…” she commented curiously, looking the front and back over.

“Can I read it now?” Dawn asked. The title alone was enough to send prickles up her spine. It sounded like an actual title. No signs about learning to like diapers, Littles learning to love their new “families,” or anything as disgusting of the sort. Just an unbiased, normal story, and Katherine could actually be the very reason she could escape from that.

“In a minute, honey,” Katherine said, and Dawn watched the book disappear in the diaper bag. “You’re getting a little squirmy; time for a change!” she announced in a sing-song voice, and the accused tried not to blush, hoping the aisle was empty.

The slightest perk to Katherine working here was having a full understanding everywhere everything was, and that included bathrooms.

Once they entered the long bathroom, every step and click from Katherine’s heels was like a punch to her gut, skipping each and every bathroom stall on their way to a station not equipped to deal with the urgency of bodily needs, but only the aftermath of it.

“W-wait!” Dawn whispered nervously, and Katherine cocked her head.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s…it’s not…! It’s not private…!” It didn’t sound like anyone was in there with them, but what was to stop someone from walking in?

A plastic foldable table bolted into the wall hung on the far end wall, right next to the mirror lining a long row of sinks. The only thing that would be keeping her from the public eye was Katherine herself. All it took was the right angle though from an all-encompassing mirror…

“No one’s here now, sweetie, it’ll be fine.”

“B-but what if somebody walks in?!” The argument didn’t stop Katherine from unfolding the table.

“Then that means they need to use the potty too?” Use it too? Katherine could be so innocent and so nonchalant, yet somehow be just as insulting at the same time. Dawn used the bathroom just like every other Amazon, only in a completely different way. Christ, she didn’t even get to use it, she was the one being used.

“Please, then just let me change myself! I’ll be quick!”

“Dawn…” There wasn’t even a debate this time, just a soft warning from Katherine that just may have reminded the Little how that went last time. The devastation from not even being able to take off her own diaper.

“W-wait, I don’t, I don’t need the–!” And the strap went on.

“Shh,” Katherine soothed, brushing her shoulder. “It’s just so I can be quick, okay?”

“So you mean I’d just get in the way?” Admittedly, there was a small amount of hurt, but mostly pissy attitude, and not including the diaper.

“No, you do not get in the way,” Katherine was quick to correct, “But I can be super fast all on my own! And…off we go!” Her shoes quickly popped off after the laces were undone, and Dawn tried pressing her knees together to stop it, but the diaper bulk between them prevented her from stopping Katherine’s quest to take off her pants.

“Please…just hurry…!” Dawn begged with her eyes shut, flinching as each tape ripped and popped. And then, if it couldn’t have been any more emotionally overwhelming, her toes hiding in her socks curled the moment she heard the front door open.

She wanted to mindlessly beg Katherine to do something. Anything. Hell, exercise her authority as an employee to kick the stranger out. But she was too embarrassed, too mortified to do even that. The cool air on her crotch was suddenly the paralyzing chill, even if Katherine’s shadow was hiding her from the rest of the room.

In a perfect world it would have been someone just going to use a stall. If only the world was perfect, though. So instead, a girl, or a mini woman was tearfully whining instead, “Mommy…!”

“I know, baby, shh… Be patient, okay? We’ll change you right after they’re done, okay?”

“Sorry!” Katherine, the social butterfly she was of course, had to acknowledge the people behind her, and Dawn stared up at the high, high ceiling trying to do nothing else but disassociate from reality just to hide herself away.

It didn’t matter if she wasn’t being seen right now. Someone was waiting on them, waiting to use this exact changing table. Whoever it was, they would without a doubt see Dawn on their way out. They would know that it was Dawn just getting her bare ass wiped and her privates rubbed down with baby powder. They’d know that the crinkling diaper they heard unfold would be around Dawn’s hips.

“Hm?” The Amazon behind them made a noise. “Oh? Oh! No, no!” she laughed, and Dawn watched Katherine’s head up above turn so that they could converse, and somehow it didn’t impede the diapering process by much. “Please, take your time!”

“I promise we’ll be done soon!” Katherine lightheartedly apologized anyway, and Dawn felt no need to contribute.

“Mommy…!” The girl complained again. Just maybe, what if she could be an actual baby? An Amazon-born one? Not one just picked up off the streets? It would have been nice to know this casual chatter wasn’t so morbidly fucked like every other Amazon, but by the same token, it’d make Dawn feel even worse. What a thought: she was laying in the same place that not only babified Littles got changed, but actual babies too. What made her any different from them?

“Uh-oh, cranky?” Katherine laughed.

“Cranky…” the other mommy agreed with a sigh. “Nothing we’re not used to, though.” And then in a not so quiet whisper she said, “She gets like this whenever she makes a stinky!”

“Awh…poor thing!” She said it right as Dawn felt her thumbs smoothen out the freshly applied adhesives. A new prison for her posterior. After her pants went on, the strap was undone and she was lifted up.

Dawn’s head was perched over her shoulder, forced to come face to face with the mother and mind-fucked behind them. Some random person in glasses with what looked like a laptop carrier hanging over her shoulder, paired with a much more bright and green diaper bag to boot, all the while held at her hip…?

The sulking, grumpy girl’s face then lit up like the sun once she saw the fellow Little.

“DAWN!” the voice shrieked, and collectively all three other folks in the room winced, albeit Dawn a bit more.

“Kailey!” the Amazon holding her scolded the girl, only in a much more level voice. “What did we say about shouting inside?”

“But! But she’s my friend!” Kailey, the same girl in the dress and yellow sandals from before; frog-lover Kailey, pointed squarely at Dawn.

The mommy blinked in surprise, so did Dawn, and especially Katherine.

“What? What are you talking about?” Kailey’s guardian gave her an off look, then said to Katherine. “I’m sorry…she’s a bit energetic…”

“No, that’s fine!” Katherine laughed, though she sounded a bit confused as well. “Do you know her, Dawn?” and with her own charge held against her hip, Dawn was bounced like a physical cue to have her chime in.

All Kailey did then was giggle and wave, and the smell was finally starting to catch up to Dawn. Not her own clean backside, but the one that was still in need of it…

“...Y-yeah, we met.”

“We’re friends!” Kailey, sounding not very helpful, added to it. Dawn never once remembered becoming friends, more so just this girl forcing herself into an acquaintanceship. Then the girl gasped again, pointing at Katherine this time. “Do you talk to the robots?!”

Unless Katherine had some extra job Dawn didn’t know about, that was simply incorrect. She fixed them and performed maintenance. Robots didn’t talk, and even this dimension didn’t seem to have that. It was impossible.

And yet in a shocking turn of events, “That’s right!” Katherine smiled, and Dawn gave her a weird look.

The answer made Kailey squeal while the Amazon holding her only looked more and more apologetic.

“Oh, wait–!” The other Amazon scrunched her face like she was filtering out a memory. “That’s right!” she laughed. “My daughter was saying something like that when I picked her up. She did say she met somebody at the daycare!” And finally acknowledging the Little herself, she smiled as she asked, “Your name must be Dawn?”

Daycare? Dawn flinched, resolving it as just a generalization. She did not do daycares, so that was simply impossible. It was the Little Learning Corner, and nothing else.

“Yes…I’m Dawn.”

Katherine was quiet up until that point, looking from one person to another, only finally jumping in now.

“You know my– you know Dawn? She made a friend?”

No, she did not. Dawn did not make a friend…!

“We sat at story time!” Kailey proudly reminisced like it was meeting a soul mate, only that one of them had ever felt the magic.

“I think I was the first one to drop someone off,” Katherine explained, “I work here, so I can’t bring her in any later.”

“Ahh!” The woman nodded like the final piece of the puzzle had been found. “I think I remember being in second place, actually!” she laughed. “Oh! And sorry, I don’t have any manners!” Maybe that’s why Kailey didn’t have any either… Ew, low blow. Suddenly Dawn was hit with internal guilt for kicking someone that was already down… So far down.

“My name’s Sandra?” the Amazon offered a hand, and Katherine reciprocated.

“Katherine. So nice to meet you! I can’t say I keep track of regulars, but do you come here often?”

“Not too much, no,” Sandra shook her head. “I just needed to do some research on a drug for my work, and Kailey here was being a little fussy; didn’t wanna dump that on the folks at her usual daycare…!”

And the pair shared a motherly laugh, one that Dawn wished Katherine couldn’t participate in.

“Yeah? Well she seems like a real sweetheart to me?” Katherine complimented with a grin right at the girl, suddenly going from bold and brave to shy and demure.

“A little time with me is usually enough to mellow her out. Well, that and clean diapers.”

And just so Dawn wasn’t a decoration as much as Kailey, feeling the need to differentiate, she said to Katherine, “She’s a doctor.” The one other thing she remembered from talking to Kailey.

“Oh wow!” Katherine marveled, and Sandra grinned with a crease in her brow. “Do you work at one of the nearby hospitals?”

Suddenly the woman was laughing. “Ugh, please…!” Sandra groaned, giving her charge a playfully stern look. “I swear, behind my back Kailey tells everyone she sees that I’m some kind of superhero… I’m just a boring old pharmacist!”

A pharmacist. Not a doctor. Dawn had vouched for her, and now she looked just as silly as Kailey, spurring along tall tales and make-believe. Meanwhile, Kailey the culprit simply looked distracted trying to simultaneously follow the conversation and dangle her foot around the edge of Sandra’s sweater jacket.

“Awh, don’t act like that!” Katherine laughed, “She’s just proud that her Mommy does something so exciting!”

“Mm, well…” the woman chuckled, “As cute as she is, she really knows how to inflate an ego…! Sometimes I wonder just who her actual mommy is! I wish I was a doctor! Just like talking to robots, huh?”

“Right?”

More shared laughs, more discomfort from Dawn.

But the novelty was finally gone for poor Kailey, back to whining with a full diaper now everyone could certainly smell.

“Oh, gosh!” Katherine gasped, stepping aside and hooking Dawn’s sneakers off the table with her free hand. “Sorry! All yours!”

“Sorry you had to smell mine!” Sandra stepped forward and down Kailey went. “If I had known she was gonna do this, I would have picked her up a little bit later…”

“Nothing we’re not used to,” Katherine dropped on a dime, spilling more secrets between her and Dawn like they were free samples.

Her cheeks were hot and embarrassed, but at least they were stepping away, thank God.

“Nice meeting you!” Katherine waved, and Sandra stuck a hand up from the operating table.

“Likewise!”

And suddenly Dawn was breathing fresh air again back outside.

“Dawn…!” A disappointed voice was suddenly closing in on her. “You never said anything about making a friend!”

“Wh-what?” Dawn stammered right back. “I…no, I didn’t. She’s the one that Dayna forced to come over to me? We…we barely even talked.”

“She seemed nice, though? Her mommy, too?”

Her “mommy,” the pharmacist, not actual doctor “mommy.”

Dawn frankly wanted nothing to do with them, but forgoing the route of saying something mean or rude, meekly shrugged. Katherine tucked her mouth into her cheek right back, making a small, pensive look.

“Well…okay. My break is just about over, sweetie. Ready to go back?”

“Go…back? Where?”

“Back with Dayna?” Katherine turned her head.

“Wh…what? Why? You came and picked me up, though!” Was this a joke? Didn’t she set her free for a reason?

“Dawn, that was just for lunch? It’s not that much longer?”

“N-no! Please! Don’t make me go back!” It was an immediate plea. She knew the mess she had caused and the fire she started. If Dayna was vengeful, what if she tried to get back at her for being such a disruption? Was she going to be fair? What if she was like Stacy? Treating Littles like kids all up until they were an adult nuisance, and only then did they dish out cruel treatment.

“Dawn…I can’t. Please don’t be upset?”

“Wh…why though? I won’t bother you! Can’t you just let me sit with you, or something? A-at a desk? I’ll be quiet! Just don’t bring me back! I don’t want to go!”

“Why not, honey?”

“Because Dayna! What if she tries to do something to me?”

“What do you think she’s going to do?” The look on the Amazons face communicated that she hardly understood what Dawn was getting at. Like any clueless parent, she was just trying to figure out what irrational boogie man was inside her head.

“I…I don’t know? Just…something! I made her mad! If she does something to me, I can’t fight back, and you won’t be there! I’m…I’m scared!” It was the truth, and the thought of being delivered right back into the den made her clutch Katherine’s shirt. “Please…! Please don’t make me…!”

“Dawn…” Katherine exhaled sadly, and Dawn was nearly quivering from understanding what that implied. There was no alternative, no other answer. She was going back and would be left at the mercy of a stranger she’d started and ended on the wrong foot with.

And so they walked, embarking on Dawn’s departure to deathrow.

She couldn’t watch. How could she witness her own demise? Keeping her head down, she sulked, not even trying to beg as Katherine’s mind had been made. She likely chalked it all up to babyish behavior blown out of proportion, and that ultimately the grownups knew better.

Maybe it was all Dawn’s fault though. Maybe if she had fallen in line there would be the worries or fears of what was to undoubtedly come. She dug her own grave and now all she had to do was lay down and be buried.

It was inevitable, and the thought of seeing Dayna again made her heart ache to a point that didn’t even feel right. Why was she scared? She shouldn’t be! She didn’t even do anything that bad…! Kids act up all the time, don’t they? Wasn’t that all Dawn was to her too? So she’d be let off lightly, right? Right?

“Excuse me?”

Dawn went limp when Katherine spoke up. They were back, weren’t they? Time for dropoff. Back to the internment camp.

“Hey, Katherine, have a good lunch?” Wait, that wasn’t Dayna. It sounded like…Grace, was her name? “Oh? Bring back a little snack with you?”

“Kind of,” Katherine chuckled, but started to whisper. “Do…do you think you could do me a favor? Dawn’s feeling a little groggy right now… It’s either take her back to Dayna and put her down for a nap, or keep her nearby while she does it. She’s being a bit clingy though,” and there was a soft pat on her padded bottom to boot. “Would you mind if she napped here while we run the front desk?”

She…she didn’t take me back to Dayna? Was she covering for me? Actually?

“Yeah, sure, that’s fine,” Grace agreed nonchalantly, and Dawn was ready to squeal a bit herself about Katherine’s best friend, and now Dawn’s. “I’m fine with it, but are you okay if someone else sees?”

“I’m gonna give her a corner under the desk…” Katherine explained, though she didn’t sound so keen about it either. “I’m glad I packed her a pillow and blanket though.”

“So now’s her usual nap time?” Hardly. Never was nap time because naps didn’t happen for Dawn.

“Working on it,” Katherine said as they sat down in an adjacent chair. “It was either gonna happen now or start on the car ride home… But you’re sure you don’t mind?”

“Yeah, no biggie for me. I wouldn’t try to let anyone else see, though. Awh, she asleep already?”

“She’s definitely tired,” Katherine hiked her up some, and Dawn kept her eyes shut, opting for as much believability as she could. If Katherine was giving her a way out, Dawn was finally going to cooperate. “From the sound of it she’s been drinking juice all day and I just fed her some lunch… Sorry, could you hand me that jacket from the diaper bag?”

“Sure…” Dawn quietly listened to the rummaging. “This one?”

“Perfect,” Katherine took it and did something close to the floor. “And down we go…”

And down Dawn did go. Right on the somewhat hard floor, but she was cushioned by a thin layer of material underneath. Katherine’s jacket, apparently. But her head did get a pillow. Did Katherine really pack something like that? Was she really planning on a nap? Dawn stretched her legs, remembering her lack of shoes, and suddenly that question felt a little bit more answered. This really was premeditated?

“Dawn?” A soft voice whispered into her ear. “Not a peep, okay? Naptime, understood?”

She had half a mind to ask if she could read that book, but Dawn wasn’t looking to earn herself a trip back to jail.

“Mhm…” Dawn murmured back. Fine. The next best thing to reading really was sleep. No expectations to do anything but keep to herself. For once she would concede to a nap, only because it suited her wants and nothing more. It wasn’t giving in or being obedient, but instead furthering her own interests.

Call it a low blow though, one Dawn couldn’t react to without making a scene, but with her eyes closed and unable to anticipate what might come next, she had no way of dodging the silent peck on her cheek.

“Sleep tight…!” Katherine softly whispered, and Dawn tried to not make a face, pretending even to Katherine that she was already out like a light.

The desk hanging over her was like a pseudo artificial darkness, offering a good amount of shade just to simulate the darkness. It was enough  if she turned the other way to face the wall of the desk.

But this was it. All she had to do was close her eyes, and just maybe, hopefully, once she opened them the day would be over. The library will have been conquered and triumphed, and she will have survived.

A…victory?

[dmavn]

woohoo thank you thank you. It’s like my birthday come early. Been waiting for more of this story for evveerr.. 

[Kat5]

I hate that things went sideways on Patreon for you, and I hope that you can get things back to some semblance or normal very soon!

For what little it is worth, this story is one of the ones I link my friends to when they ask what I'm writing. I use this, Unfair, and Seems too Good as examples of just plain excellent writing that I hope to do half as well as.

As far as I'm concerned, you're an excellent author, and I hope that you can continue to keep writing stories tht you enjoy!

[Mee]

9 hours ago, dmavn said:

woohoo thank you thank you. It’s like my birthday come early. Been waiting for more of this story for evveerr.. 

Apologies for the wait! It should be back to a regular release schedule now, but if you're ever itching for more you can find 13 more chapters to read! Thank you for reading!

8 hours ago, Kat5 said:

I hate that things went sideways on Patreon for you, and I hope that you can get things back to some semblance or normal very soon!

For what little it is worth, this story is one of the ones I link my friends to when they ask what I'm writing. I use this, Unfair, and Seems too Good as examples of just plain excellent writing that I hope to do half as well as.

As far as I'm concerned, you're an excellent author, and I hope that you can continue to keep writing stories tht you enjoy!

Yeah, me too. Thank you for the kind words. And thank you very much! I tend to keep on finding fault with my work and ways I can improve, but I am proud of at least doing this for so long now. Thank you very much!

[Kat5]

9 minutes ago, Mee said:

I tend to keep on finding fault with my work and ways I can improve

I am royalty in the realm of self persecution. I've learned to aim, not for perfection, but for doing my best. Sometimes my best is okay. Sometimes it's not. But as long as I always do my best, I find that it's typically good enough.

So you keep doing your best, because from what I can see, your best is a full grade above mine at this time. I read a lot and your stories, among others, have somehow prodded my own creative spark into writing.

So for that: Thank you.