Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All days end with sleep, but energetic babies need just a little bit more. It was 11pm, an hour before the big day, and little Henrietta was in the middle of her much-needed naptime. The sleepy girl had her head resting on the workbench, which was now covered with her magenta hair and a trail of drool. She showed no signs of getting up any time soon since she was comfortably in dreamland and was likely planning which elaborate contraption to make next.

As she softly snored on the workbench, a tall man ran into the room. He was dressed in a sleek suit and while his face showed patience, he was in fact in a desperate hurry. After all, his little sleepyhead was meant to be on stage in just under an hour! He finally found her, and with a breath of relief, shook her awake.

"Ah good, there you are. Now let's go, little one. You still need your makeup on."

"Noooo...", the groggy girl whined and gave a petulant pout as she was shaken about. "Comfy..."

"I'm sure you'll get plenty of rest in your crib later, but for now you need to be the star of the show. You don't want to miss your show, now do you?"

~ ~ ~ ~

It was five minutes to midnight. The air was stagnant and tasted like metal. Little flakes of wood scattered the floor under wires that nobody had bothered to unravel. While it was initially silent in the gloomy room, it was now brimming with the terror-filled screams of a woman, along with a cacophony of chains being pulled.

"HELP!". She had been yelling for more than ten minutes now and it had ended with coughing as her voice started to croak. The 20-something woman darted her brown eyes around like a frightened doe, and with her face drenched with desperation, she looked just as disheveled as the room did. Her hair was the color and length of tagliatelle, which she frantically chewed on in an attempt to calm herself down. While her throat was burned by exhaustion at this point, her rush of adrenaline kept her struggling and screaming. Luckily for her, this got somebody's attention — her fellow captive.

"H-huh, what- What's going on?". Damion jolted awake in deep confusion. He instinctively looked left and saw the pale woman who woke him up.

"Finally! Took you long enough. Hey, is the guy next to you awake yet?" Damion struggled to parse what was going on, but he looked to his right and saw another person with them who looked to be in a deep sleep. The darkness made it hard to tell what the man looked like, but it was clear that he had dark hair and was still breathing.

"...No, he doesn't look awake. H-hey, what's goin-"

"Look, I don't know! I think we've been kidnapped or something. Based on the chains, at least." Damion tried to get past his headache. Everything was fuzzy for him right now, but he could've sworn the girl just said 'chains' and 'kidnapped'! He sleepily looked at the girl to see what she was talking about and while her clothes looked to be some kind of weird sweater, that wasn't the problem here. Her hands and feet had metal cuffs around them, which were chained down to the table in front of her. Although looking at it closer, he saw that the table had a large buzzer fixed on top of it, making it look more like a game show podium more than anything.

As he slowly understood that he was in a bad situation, he was rattled by his own appearance. Not only was he also chained down to the podium like the girl was, his outfit had changed. Last he remembered; Damion was out drunk in a nightclub (as per usual) trying to pick up girls (...as per usual). There was no doubt that he left the house wearing his signature black polo shirt and brown blazer combo. However, even with his vision blurred from a headache, he could tell that he was now in what looked to be a greenish-blue onesie speckled with stars. He shuffled around in confusion and started to feel a paper-like texture around his crotch which sounded like a newspaper being ruffled about. He then attempted to fully close his legs, and when he couldn't, he confirmed what he had feared — he was wearing a diaper.

"What the fuc- Hey, where the hell are we?!"

"How am I supposed to know, I'm in the same position as you!" Looking closer at her, she was also in a diaper and onesie, although this one was more of a light orange and had polka-dots across it. Damion looked back at the other captive, who's dull black hair was made messy as his head lay on top of the buzzer. He was also in the same outfit, but this one was a pastel purple with stripes. As if timed, he started to wake up too.

"Bleh... h-huh?" The guy on Damion's right was taking a second to adjust, but he was soon clued in to their troubling situation. Obviously, he didn't take it well. His murky grey eyes would widen when informed about the chains and potential kidnapping.

"NO! But, why? I'm a nobody, who'd want to kidnap me?!"

"That's what I'm thinking!", chimed the girl in the orange onesie, "This must be a hostage situation or something! Like, they didn't care who the captive was, just that they got someone!"

Damion stood there in silence as he thought about himself. He wasn't a nobody. As a matter of fact, he was due to inherit his father's lucrative business and was told he now had a target on his back thanks to it. Maybe he wasn't taken here randomly, and someone close to him had...

"Good evening.", a voice echoed out in front of them and a man slowly walked forward from the shadows to greet them. "I'm sure you're all confused, but please do let me explain your predicament." He was dressed in a suit that had a formal vest underneath it, along with a simple tie. All of these were black except for his tab-collared shirt which was a muted blue. Even with his formal presentation, Damion could tell that he was an athletic man and would easily pin Damion down if he tried anything stupid. Not like he even could, chained up like this. The man was also taller than all of them and had piercing cerulean eyes that looked down with indifference.

The man who had just woken up now fearfully rustled his chains and shouted at the suited man. "Get us out of here! We won't cause trouble, just-"

"Good to hear, but I'll need assurance that you three will play along. Luckily for us, my staff here have prepared something to make me feel very assured." He interrupted the boy with a clear lack of regard for him. His voice and presence were so heavy that it made all three of them stop talking. Without wasting any time, his staff sprang from behind the captives. They were dressed in large orange cloaks and Venetian masks, but that wasn't as frightening as their actions. Most of them swooped in to hold the three down, while another staff member worked to attach a bulky collar to each captive's neck.

"Perfect.", the tall man applauded the masked group, who left as soon as their job was finished. "Good, in a moment you'll be sent to the main stage where-"

"Please just let us go!", the blonde woman cried out. Damion was shaken up too, but he was also deep in thought about where they were. His thoughts felt like they had been dragged through sludge, and while his first thought was deep regret for this hangover, he had quickly managed to gain some lucidity. In all likelihood, he was under this 'main stage'. There were wooden planks everywhere and it was filled with a heavy amount of acoustic insulation. "I wonder...", Damion muttered to himself. "I could still be inside the nightclub, that would explain the stage, right?"

Unfortunately for Damion's train of thought, it was suddenly derailed. Without a word, the man in front of him took out a remote and pressed all three buttons on it. Damion felt it instantly. A sudden twang ran through his body, starting at his neck where the collar was. Damion had not felt a pain like this before in his life. He could see his body spasming beneath him, but he managed to hold himself up onto the podium. His legs were barely his own and he had to wrestle control back as they fell numb.

"That was the mild setting. I think you understand why I have this, but let me make something clear. If you fail to play along with the show — let's say you scream for help or refuse to talk to the host — you'll get a stronger version of what you just received."

Damion couldn't believe what he was hearing. What sort of twisted 'show' was he expected to play along with?! "P-please, let's just talk this out..."

"Oh dear, it's seven minutes past. She must be buying time right now. I think I'll give her the cue...", he gently spoke to himself as he looked over his watch with little care for his own captives. With a serious face, he waved the remote at them as a morbid reminder to behave, then started to walk away. Pressing his fingers to an earpiece, he mumbled something that Damion couldn't hear.

They all stood in silence for thirty seconds. Damion attempted to make a comment, wanting to form a plan with the others, but he couldn't get the words out...

Suddenly, the floor started to move, and the ceiling started to open. They were on a platform which had slowly risen to meet the 'main stage'. The chains connected to their hands disconnected, which were then pulled under the podium, but their feet were still held in place. Running wasn't an option. As they were hit with lights and confetti, the podiums' buzzers glowed red. Damion’s head throbbed the higher they got. He had just managed to focus after recovering from the hangover and electric shock, but now his eyes felt like someone was poking needles into them. If this really was a show, then the hanging lights piercing into him were a sign to Damion that their terror was about to begin.

~ ~ ~ ~

Damion forced a steady breathing pattern, trying to stay calm under pressure. As his head started to adjust to the lights, Damion and the other 'contestants', were met with a stock sound effect of cheering from a non-existent audience. There were cameras, so he was clearly being recorded, but the elaborate circus-inspired set he was on already told him that this was made for other people to enjoy.

"Ahaha! And here we have our contestants! Yay, it's time to meet them!" yelled a bubbly girl who was now skipping over to meet the captives. She was dressed up as a court jester and had a onesie that was divided by the center into two parts. One side was a vibrant purple with vertical stripes, while the other was bright orange and littered with polka-dots. Her outfit had a lot of strange and garish details such as the poofy diaper which her onesie did a poor job at hiding. As she pranced around on the stage, an intrusive thought entered Damion's mind... "Has she used it?".

She wore a jester's collar and apron, along with long mittens and thigh-high booties — all of which had bells attached to them. Her collar was especially distracting though. First, it had an odd logo which looked like a crossed-out symbol with a brain in the center. Second, and more importantly, was that at the end of her jester's collar was a giant pacifier that had notable drool and bite marks on it. She also wore the typical jester's hat, but for some reason it had the words "Dum Dum" written on it in a childish font.

Despite how babyish she looked, there was a sense of ferocity to her. Her bright magenta hair was incredibly unkempt, making her look like a feral beast. If it were not for the turquoise hair dye applied to one of her bangs, it would look like she didn't treat herself at all. She would carelessly hang her mouth open, showing off her jagged teeth, which helps explain how the pacifier was so chewed up. Another point of concern for Damion was how her mittens and chest had straps on them (which had a color matching her hair dye). In fact, the more he looked, the more her onesie resembled a straitjacket.

"Who wanna go first?! It's time to say hi-hi!", she babbled in a cutesy voice. "How about... me! I'm your adorrrrrable host for the evening, Dum Dum Henri! As always, I'll let the contestants say their thing and then we can play together! Hmm, let's start with the cute girl. What's your name?"

"O-oh, um, well..."

"Too slow, jeez... Anyway, I already know! You're Felicia!", the jester got giddy, excited for the show. Her hyperexcitability was a wild contrast to what the captives woke up to, but this sudden change of pace didn't make them feel any calmer.

"How did you know-"

"If I remember correctly... oh, it's so hard for my useless brain... Thinking hard!", she makes a dumb face for the camera, while Damion is left unsure if she is actually that forgetful now, or if all of this was some twisted act. "Yup-yup, that's it! You're here today because you're such a picky girl! You were seen at a restaurant with your friends, ordering yummy burgers together! But uh-oh! Someone didn't want any lettuce or the tomato or the mayonnaise or the onions or- ...I mean at that point, why not just have mushy baby food like me?!"

"I-I'm sorry, what?! You kidnapped me for my food preferences?"

"We'll get to that icky 'k' word, but yes! You see, foolish adults like me need to be sent back to babyhood forever. We're so much happier this way! Look, isn't this so much fun?!", she asked with an insultingly peppy tone, before suddenly turning around and shoving her butt onto Felicia's podium. As she did this, Damion saw a discoloration from the diaper peeking out under her onesie, and with how nauseated Felicia looked, it was clear that the waddling jester had thoroughly messed herself before the show began. If that didn’t clue him in, the stench in the room certainly told him everything... He had never babysat before, but from what he was told by the friend who had, this matched the description of a poopy baby perfectly. Be that as it may, it didn't seem to bother the jester. In fact, she looked to adore being smelly!

Soon, the jester lifted her butt back down and continued talking. "You at the end! In the purple!", the boy she shouted at was startled. "What's your name!?"

"W-why are you..."

"Actually, don't answer that, you'll take your sweet time too! You're Aaron, a college senior who relied wayyyyyy too much on your compassionate roommate. He cooked, cleaned, and even woke you up when you wouldn't get your bum-bum moving! Ever since he graduated, you've just let your dorm go to waste, now haven't you? Too useless to clean up! Now I getcha, don't worry. All babies make a mess, after all!"

"I was just... overworked and tired!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Okay! Time for contestant numero tres! Or... I guess number two since you're in the middle? Ahah, number two! That means stinkies!"

"I'm Damion. Now start explainin-"

"Yay, a quick one! That usually means you're quick to make poopies though, so you better watch out!" Expecting something about his soon-to-be position at his father's company, Damion just sighed and let her ramble. "Let's see... you're a bit of a playboy, aren't you?"

"H-huh?"

"Wow-wow! You went alllllll around the globe looking to score and you never did. Shameful. A couple of one-night-stands, but it's not like they wanted to stay with you. After all, they were mature adults, and you're just a dumb baby like meeeee!"

"Let me guess, you're one of the girls I slept with? Is that why I'm here?!"

"Phhft! Nah! I have a daddy already and I'd never take someone like you! Bleh!", she taunted Damion, sticking out her tongue at him.

"Let us out! Get whoever's behind this damn kidnappi-"

"Yeah see, that's the bad word again."

"How exactly?! It's true!"

"Well, now that intros are done-done, I'd like to show you all something." On command, three 'staff members' came onto the stage and placed a document on each podium. They were each several pages long, but more importantly, they each had the contestants' signatures at the bottom. "So this is your contract to be here today. Not exactly forced if you wanted it, amirite guys?"

"When the hell did I do this?!" Damion scanned it over and saw that it was presented as a 'chance to win a free trip to a day spa', but the bright light made it impossible for him to read much more than that.

"Recently, actually. You really should've checked the fine print, I swear. It's not lying either! If you win this game, you get a fun-fun trip to the finest spa in the country. Expenses will be paid by us too!"

Each contestant looked over the pages and then looked dejected. "But hang on!", Damion thought, "They were still taken in their sleep and chained up tonight, so this contract must be void or something!"

"How about we begin? I'm getting... a little bored."

Felicia interrupted her. "W-what? No, we're not going to-"

"Going to what, play my cool-cool show?! Are you misbehaving already?!"

The words 'misbehaving' made them all go quiet. Damion practically felt an after-effect of the horrific shock they were given, although his legs were shaking from fear this time. He didn't want to do anything to earn another one, and besides, this show was happening regardless of what they did, so it was best that they played along.

"Great! Let's get started! It's time for-" she posed and paused as if about to deliver a slogan or catchphrase. "Brain. B. Gone!"

~ ~ ~ ~

The giggling 'Dum Dum Henri' walked over to her own podium and got out some cue cards. "As this is a mid-season show, it's time for some fun trivia to lighten the mood!"

"...mid-season?" blurted out the black-haired man.

"Yeah, you're too lame to be the main event, ahaha! Anyway, first question! What silvery-gray metal is the 12th most abundant element found in the Earth's crust?"

There was no answer. Clearly the babyish clothes and circus aesthetic were all a fancy façade for a challenging game of trivia. None of the contestants were good at trivia, but they had to at least give it a try in a desperate attempt to play along. Aaron was the first to hit his buzzer. "Um... Is it silicon?"

"Euuuhrr!", Henri made a fake buzzing noise with her mouth and then played an actual buzzing sound effect immediately after. "It's Manganese, dummy! Next question-"

"A-are they all going to be this hard?", Aaron objected, and was clearly annoyed.

"I thought that one was easy, actually. A real gimme question..."

Damion took his chance. "What happens if we lose, by the way? Somehow, I feel it's not just going home ashamed."

"Oh, that's obvious! If you're too much of a dumb, silly baby to answer some dumb, silly questions, then... Well, I think you don't deserve your adulthood."

"W-what do you mean, exactly?"

"If you lose the game, you lose your 'brain' too! That's the jist of the show. I guess a better explanation is that failing will get you regressed back to a baby so that you can finally live your happy life as a dum-dum like me!"

"Hang on! That's the first time we're hearing about-"

"Question 2! Oh, even my stinky-stinky brain knows this one! What is Amelia Earhart's middle name?"

Felicia hit her buzzer quickly, still a little shocked after being told that losers are returned to babyhood. She stood there thinking about the question for twelve seconds. "Well..."

"Ahaha! Took too long, so I'll answer it for you! It's Mary! And here I thought I was slow!", Henrietta gave the camera a big smile as a bubble of drool dribbled from her mouth. Damion took a moment to think about her jester get-up. Either it was a character she was playing for the show, or she genuinely got regressed and made to prance about with a mushy diaper like a fool. Was that... his fate if he lost? He needed to act quick!

"Question 3. Jack Steinberger is a physicist noted for his work with what?"

Damion panicked. "Uh, burgers!" He sighed with deep regret.

"Would be cool, but no. Neutrinos." Before Damion could even ready himself after that embarrassing answer, it was time for the next one. "Question 4, what's the capital of France?"

Aaron buzzed in immediately while Damion was stunned. "Paris? ...I mean, it's Paris, yeah."

"Correct! 100 points to you! Wowie, that was a hard-hard one too! I didn't know where to start with it, well done!"

"...is this a joke?" Damion mumbled, looking absolutely lost.

The questions continued, and soon the first round was over. The score remained the exact same as before, with Damion and Felicia having 0 points while Aaron had 100. This was clearly expected, since the jester girl pivoted hard to the next game for them to play.

"Well, that was fun. Glad we all know that you deserve those diapers, you dumb babies!" Henrietta mocked them about the blush-inducing underwear they were put into. The last thing Damion wanted right now was a reminder about how he couldn't even close his legs properly. He laid his head on the podium, thinking about the worst-case scenario of actually being made to use the diaper when the jester made a sudden announcement. "Time for the bonus round!"

"T-the what?" Felicia questioned, hoping to get some points soon.

"You two are sitting with a miserable 0 points, aren't you? Even worse, you have boring dry diapers! Not stinky at all!", she stomped her feet around like a toddler being told they couldn't get a new toy. Looking upset, the girl plopped her mushy butt onto the floor, which was met with an audible squishing sound from her diaper. A laugh track played in the background as the jester stared up at the contestants. "Soooooo, how about a free 500 points?"

Aaron got nervous. He was in the lead, although only barely, so the idea of someone beating him for doing nothing was concerning. "What? Is there a catch or something, because this is unfair!"

"A catch... oh, yes indeed.", the jester spoke with a sinister tone before going back to her energetic self. "It's super-super easy! If you want the points, you gotta endure a 'Test of Maturity'! Ahaha, that's a fun word, isn't it? Endure!" The three contestants knew nothing about what this test would be about, but it was already clear to them that it would not be the 'free points' she promised. "Pass the test with your little brain-brain intact, and you win! It's as easy as that! The two of you with no points must be itching to do this, right?! I mean, if you don't, you'll be stuck with 0 points... So, is anyone up for it?"

There was no response, but this was something the jester girl predicted, given by her smile. "Shame, I can always randomly pick one of-"

"I'll do it." Aaron interjected.

"...really? Ooooh fun!", she would clap her hands and her delight was apparent on her face.

"Wait, Aaron, what the hell!", Daimon felt threatened. "You already have points, stay out of this!"

"It's not personal, man. If I do this dumb test, I get those 500 points, which means I win this game.", Aaron looked back at the drooling host. "I'll do it."

"Hey now, l-let's think about this for a second.", Felicia anxiously advised Aaron.

"No, no! No more thinking! It's good for you!", the jester didn't care if Aaron wanted it, just so long as somebody got to do the trap for the show. "I think it's time for a break, everyone! When we next come back, we'll get to see our first test of the day! How exciting!"

~ ~ ~ ~

As the game show stopped for a break, Damion was left trembling thinking about Henrietta's last words. This was not just a 'bonus round', it was the first of several tests that they were expected to go through. If he wanted a chance to win this thing, he'd have to do one of them...

The cloaked staff members walked around the stage, and seeing an opportunity for extra fun, Henrietta stretched out her arms before gleefully bouncing up towards the podiums. Damion wasn't even looking at her as she approached them, but the sound of the bells dotted on her embarrassing jester outfit alerted him. Although the sound wasn't the only thing that alarmed him, it was also the overwhelming smell of Henri's diaper.

"Hey-hey! I hope you guys are loving this because I think the audience is!"

"There's an audience?", Felicia responded. "Why? If we're just hostages, then why bother with all the trivia nonsense!?"

"Hostages? No, I don't think that's right... but that's because I don't think at all, ahaha!" She hopped around on the spot like an excited rabbit before calming down to talk to them again. "Look, I know that it's hard to read sometimes, but all of this was in the contract. Not like it matters anyway. I'd say that a good portion of our audience wouldn't even care if it were forced..."

"W-what?!", Aaron was shocked, especially since he signed himself up to one of the game show's 'tests'. "What kind of TV show is this?!"

"Pffft, who watches television these days?! This is on the dark web, baybeeee~" she sounded proud of this show's setup, which was no doubt an expensive one given the rising platform they were chained to.

As she was talking, Damion watched the staff members behind her. They were carrying a rectangular platform onto the main stage, which they then folded out. It was about the size of a single bed, but nothing about it looked comforting. The base of the platform looked bulky and metal, as though it contained something equally as bulky inside it, while the top of the platform had a thin layer of foam. They slotted in metal supports onto the platform, making a wall of metal frames. It was soon clear why they did this, as they next brought in a camera and tablet, which they attached to the wall. However, then came the worrying part, as all of this was followed by a strange-looking headset that had needles attached to it. The other contestants soon saw this device too, and obviously Aaron wanted answers.

"The hell is that? I thought this was a test!? Like it's a trivia show, so-"

"Ahaha, you serious? What good is a circus-themed game show without some entertainment?! We need set-pieces and fun-fun drama!

"I-it... It looks like a death trap."

"Huh?! Insulting! That was mean, you meanie!" Henrietta pouted and clearly knew that it looked exactly like a death trap instead of a 'test'. "Alright fine, I get how it looks, but it's just to give it some splendor. I actually hate violence!"

There was a second of silence after that remark. Damion just had to know how that made any amount of sense. "...the shock collars? You really want us to believe you're some pacifist?"

"Believe what you'd like, but it's true! I only want to show people the joys of being a baby! Still, I get what you mean. These shock collars suck!", she started to whine and act upset as though she was forced into one herself. "It's not my fault, y'know! We needed them because, well, ahah... One year, the contestants got a bit violent with each other... but no more! Ever since Daddy suggested the smart collar idea, we've been violence-free! Aren't we so considerate of you contestants?"

"So how does your little test even work?" Aaron started to sweat, although most of that was from the stage lights pointed at him.

"Don't wanna spoil it, ahaha~" She then got bored, walking away from the three of them. She didn't do any work on the stage after this, either. She just looked to be having fun as the staff moved and assembled the test. Henrietta shoved a giant pacifier into her mouth, the one which was connected to her jester's collar. Although with how her collar collected all the drool she slobbered onto it, it was more like a bib for her.

"She's so gross. What kind of host is she meant to be anyway?", Damion complained, finally happy that the smell of used diapers had gone away.

"She's a jester, so she's made to be a fool for the audience.", Felicia hypothesized.

"What do you mean by 'made', exactly?"

"I highly doubt she's here by choice. I mean, she's jumping around on stage in a used diaper and keeps calling herself an idiot. I think she's been brainwashed."

"Do you think that's our fate if we lose this show...?"

"Maybe." Felicia sighed. "She made a comment about her Daddy, right? I think that's the man who shocked us. I bet he's the mastermind behind this whole thing."

"I don't know. He's involved, that's for sure, but there must be a group behind the planning on this game. This definitely looks like a company effort, especially with the organized kidnapping and all of the masked staff on stage."

"Right, they're pretty creepy. They clearly want anonymity too. Their host, on the other hand..."

Damion looked at the jester again and saw her loudly cheering behind her pacifier at some giant foam blocks being brought in. "Yeah, she's too open. I see what you mean by brainwashed."

"Do we even get to leave? If that man really is involved with this game, I doubt they'll let us walk out after we've seen his face..."

"Maybe they don't care? There's an audience, after all."

"Sure, but she said her audience wouldn't even care if this was forced."

While they were discussing this, Aaron was oddly quiet. The test he had volunteered for was now fully built, and he was trying to get as much information about it as possible. The show wasn't going to wait for him, however.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Welcome back to Brain B Gone! Before the break, our lovely contestants failed horribly at answering basic questions. Oh well! More importantly, it's finally time for the first Test of Maturity! So, Aaron, feeling confident?"

"...H-huh, oh I guess I'm-"

"Yeah, whatever. Now listen up! I only get to explain how it works once! Don't ruin a magical moment for me! ...Oh, and don't worry about me being too stupid to remember the details, because I know this test pretty well! I call it the 'Puzzle Cube Platform' test!"

She jumped off the podium and then gestured to the apparatus on the stage as the cameras followed her. "Ahem~ This test involves seven large foam blocks which are all in different shapes. Do you see them? They're as big as I am! They look like snakes made of foam cubes!"

"Y-yes, I see them." Aaron stuttered out.

"You didn't need to answer that... Anyway! So, the seven cube wormies can be assembled together to form a big cube, and that's exactly your goal today — make a cube! You see the metal platform? You need to build the cube on that in under two minutes. Oh right, you can check your remaining time by looking at the tablet we've nicely placed on the metal frame next to the platform. There's also a cool camera there, and by using AI detection and a weight sensor, it'll magically know when you've finished making the cube! But uh-oh! There's a twist!"

"Of course there is...", Damion muttered.

Henrietta made a cutesy 'pow' sound as she kicked a button connected to the platform. This made the platform spring to life, fiercely vibrating it on the stage. "In short, you have to do it while the platform is all buzzy-buzzy like this! Does that sound hard? That's because it is! The cube pieces will just fly off while the platform is moving like this, so you'll need to stop it somehow... which is why I have this!", the jester cheered as she picked up the headset with needles. Damion now got a better look at the contraption and saw that it had a teat, which you'd usually find on a pacifier. For whatever reason, it was opaque and black.

"Remember this part, Aaron! Only by sucking at this game will you win!" Henrietta handed the device to one of the staff members, who then approached Aaron. Suddenly, the boy's legs were free as the cuffs around his feet were released. This freedom wasn't for long as more staff walked out and grabbed him from behind while the jester continued to talk about the misery he would need to go through.

"You'll be made to wear this during your test! It has a nice collar and straps to go around your head, so it'll be on all snug! Now this headpiece has two handy features! The first is on the front, a pacifier. It will actually inflate the heavier the platform gets, so watch out!", she giggled as the pacifier's bulb was placed into Aaron's mouth while the straps were tightened around his head.

"Next is the scary part on the back, but if you think about it the right way, I'd say it was the comfy part. There are some needles on the outside of the collar and they'll go Shnk when you lose. Hmm. Fine, I guess I'll explain that better. It's not my fault that I love funny sound effects, okay?!" Fittingly, there was stock laughter playing as soon as she said that. "Failing to get the cube together before the timer runs out will mean that you'll be injected with the best juice ever! It's called Dum Dum! You don't need to think about what it does to you, mostly because that is what it does to you, ahaha!"

The stock laughter played yet again as if someone was timing it around the moments that Damion's heart sank. Losing these 'tests' causes you to get pumped full of a drug, did he understand that right? If he did, then this drug would make the loser 'not need to think'. He initially thought about the worst possibility, as though the jester girl wanted them all to die from a poison injection. But, based on the insane antics that he's seen so far, it was more likely that the drug would make them as baby-brained as she was. This wasn't any more comforting.

Aaron tried to calm down after the headset was placed on him, and even began to bite into the pacifier he was forced to have. The platform in the center of the stage was still vibrating wildly and luckily for their ears, it was relatively quiet. With the staff off the stage now, it was all Henrietta's again. "Hooray! Doesn't that feel good- Don't answer that. You better get over here or I'll start the timer without youuuuu~"

Aaron rushed over to the stinky girl, who then placed her mittened arm over the boy's shoulder. "You can do it, just think about your fleeting adulthood and how much you want it. Of course, you can always just give up and let the needles hit. After all, being a diapee-dumper is so fun-fun!"

"S'wart it...", Aaron spat out behind the locked-on pacifier.

"Annnnnnnnd... Go! Go! Go!", she yelled which triggered the timer on the tablet.

Aaron rushed to one of the seven giant foam blocks and picked up. Upon placing it on the moving platform, the block jiggled off of it. However, more important to Aaron was how the pacifier got slightly larger the moment he placed the block. When it returned to its normal size, Aaron picked up the block that flew off and tried again, but still no success. He had seen this type of puzzle before and could roughly figure out how to assemble the cube, but doing it under stress, with the vibrations, and all within two minutes made this whole test impossible!

Thirty seconds had now gone by and that was when he remembered Henrietta's words. She had told him that he needed to suck at the game to beat it, which sounded like babyish nonsense at the time, but maybe it wasn't! That's right, the pacifier headset wasn't placed on him so that he could be teased (although it certainly did that too). It was placed on him so that he could stop the platform! He needed to suck the pacifier to win the game!

Aaron stood there and awkwardly suckled on his pacifier. He started to blush as the jester and other contestants watched him, but it was worth the embarrassment as the vibrating platform slowly stopped! Continuing to suck, Aaron rushed to the cube pieces, and one-by-one, he flung them all onto the platform. They were pretty large but easy enough to throw around. While doing this, he even worked out a good starting point and already had three pieces in what he thought to be the correct position. With each piece, the pacifier grew larger and larger. It wasn't too much of a nuisance at first, except for how much drool he now made and how red his cheeks were. However, now that he had all the pieces on, Aaron had to put more effort into sucking it.

He repositioned two more cube pieces by nudging them with his arms. With only two pieces left, Aaron thought hard about where to put them, but this was easy enough since there was an obvious gap on top of the cube. All looked to be going well. He just needed to rush and slot them in, but the thought of time made him instinctively look at the timer. He had twenty seconds left. This made Aaron panic, and so he grabbed one of the pieces and jumped onto the stage. He had forgotten about the scale built into the platform, especially since he had already placed all the pieces down and assumed that this part of the test was over. It was not.

His pacifier instantly increased in size and Aaron started to gag, causing him to leap off from the platform. He dropped the cube piece he was carrying and waited as the pacifier deflated, but time was now slipping away from him. What's worse is that the gagging made him stop sucking, and so some cube pieces got moved around. He had five seconds left. He picked up the piece he dropped and quickly slotted it into the correct position, but with the messy cube arrangement and the piece he still had yet to move, it was too late. The timer hit zero.

An alarm goes off, followed by a 'test failure' sound effect, which was then followed by Henri's excited giggling. The needles on Aaron's collar engaged and sprung in his collar, injecting every bit of the drug into his system. Aaron's dejected face, from seeing the countdown run out, was changed to a blank one. He looked dizzy and were it not for the jester girl running over to Aaron and holding his hand, he would've fallen onto the platform which was vibrating once again.

"Oh nooooooo~", Henrietta blatantly didn't care that he had lost. "I guess someone was forgetful even before the Dum Dum!", she continued to laugh at the unsteady boy as she helped him sit down onto the floor. "It doesn't typically make you woozy, but it can sometimes make you forget how walking works, so let's be safe for once, okay?"

The diapered host became cheerful at Aaron's failure, while Damion and Felicia stood there in shock, trying to steady their breath. Then again, even with the horror of seeing Aaron almost pass his test, there was a morbid sense of joy between them as they now had a chance to win this stupid game. This joy was broken with a demonstration of their fate if they were to lose...

"Agaa...", Aaron babbled which Henri nodded at mockingly.

"Yay! Everything feels much better now, doesn't it?"

"Unh, Ahgoo!"

"Ahaha! That was a good bit of Dum Dum too, so I'm guessing you forgot how speech works? Great, that sounds wonderful! Oh, you must be so happy-happy right now!"

Aaron simply drooled onto the floor. The metal platform holding the unfinished cube then slowly stopped vibrating.

"Oh right, this thing. Hmm...", the jester pondered the failed test and then slammed her foot onto the button next to the platform. "You realize that this button was still active, right? Like, you could've just turned it off, dummy! No wonder you're a drooling loser now, you were practically brain-dead from the start if you missed this! Ahaha!" Henrietta gestured for the staff to remove the platform. "Welp, that was fun. Any last thoughts, baby Aaron? Make 'em count... or not, it's useless anyway." There was no coherent response other than giggles of joy. Henrietta soon joined him with childish laughter of her own.

In the silence as the staff walked on set, a hissing sound could be heard from Aaron. "Oh! Oh! Zoom the camera in! ZOOM!", the magenta-haired host screamed at the guy behind the set who had to reposition the camera at Aaron's onesie. "Baby made his first tinkles! What a special moment!", she began to clap, and soon a cheering sound effect was played on stage as Aaron curiously started to pat his wet diaper. Then, even the regressed boy, who just a few moments ago felt terror and stress, started to clap with a blank look in his eyes.

Damion and Felicia had to stand there and watch. All of this was played as a fun bit before they'd cut their 'game show' off with another break, but for the remaining contestants, it was only going to get worse from here...

Chapter Text

This sorrowful show was on break, but Damion and Felicia's dread was never-ending. The only positives for Damion right now were the fact that he: A, hadn't used the diaper he was forced into, and B, had recovered from his hangover. A part of him had wished he was still drunk (maybe that would make this insanity easier to get through), but he knew he needed to be fully alert.

The two remaining contestants looked at Aaron, their fellow captive, after he was recently reduced to a babbling infant. He looked just as empty-headed as he did when the 'Dum Dum Drug' was first injected into him. Damion shuddered and couldn't stop thinking about the drug. How easily it made Aaron into a useless baby. How happy he looked after losing all of his thoughts.

Henrietta, the troublesome host of this trivia show, was happy to help Aaron up from the floor. She cooed at the regressed boy, making sure to show him off to the camera as much as possible. She then gave him a reward for failing — a purple pacifier. It was plopped into his mouth, which Aaron suckled on in glee. He was completely mindless now. There wasn't a single thought about how he didn't need a pacifier, how he was too old to be treated like a baby, or how weird it was to be in a soggy diaper.

After the jester girl gave Aaron his new pacifier, she made sure to tightly hold his hand with her own mittened one. They both waddled off-stage, leaving Damion and Felicia baffled. The two contestants didn't feel a need to talk after that. All they could do was wait in fear for the host to return, only having the creepy staff as their unwanted company. The Venetian masks they wore sparkled under the stage's spotlights as they stared at the surviving captives. They stood in position, waiting as though they were a walking security camera, looking for one wrong move.

Henrietta was absent far longer than either contestant expected her to be, but soon she returned, and without any build-up, she got back onto her podium and the show continued.

"Welcome back to Brain B Gone!", the jester cheered with great fanfare, accompanied by the familiar stock sound effect of clapping. "We left off with stinky-stinky baby Aaron. He fought hard for his adulthood but lost anyway! Will the same be said for our last two contestants? Well, let's ask them! What do you two say, huh? Feeling confident?!"

There was no response.

"Sooooo... that's a no? Good! Aaron needs playmates!" Laughter played in the background. Damion thought that whoever was watching this horrid show was surely laughing too. "Guess that means you both give in to babyhood, right?"

"N-no!", Damion panicked. "I'm not a baby!"

"That's right!". Felicia wasn't going to give up so easily either.

"Yay! Now we have a show!" Unexpectedly, Henrietta got excited by their bellicosity. She wanted a show, a competition between the last two captives to fight for their adulthood. Now she had a duel, one that would leave the loser as brain-dead as Aaron was.

Damion wanted to run, but there was no chance he could try anything crafty here. The only way to win was to beat Felicia at this game. He didn't even know the woman, but that didn't make this any easier. "So, more questions?"

"Uh-huh! It's trivia time, round 2!", the giddy jester hurried to pick up the cue cards for the next questions and then restarted the game. "Question 1, who was the first person to demonstrate the anesthetic properties of chloroform on humans?"

There was silence and then the sound of Felicia's buzzer. "...Pass?"

"That's not a name, doofus! Anyway, it was James Young Simpson."

"Why do you have a question on chloroform?", Damion mumbled before begging for scraps. "C-can we get another freebie?"

"Meh, sure. What's 8 + 2?"

Damion hit his buzzer and almost too proudly shouted out, "It's ten!"

"Well done! Oh, that was a hard one, Damion! 100 points!", Henrietta praised him, leaving Felicia looking gloomy, and Damion feeling resentful after getting false compliments. "Hmm... Damion. What a boring name! Let's call you Day-Day instead!"

"W-why?"

"I just said why! It was boring, now it's better! Get with it or I'll call you 'Diaper Boy' next!"

"R-right, Day-Day's fine!"

The questions continued, with 'Dum Dum Henri' throwing in more easy ones from time to time. She always acted as though answering them was a grand accomplishment, and while Damion would roll his eyes every time she gave them fake praise, it did subconsciously feel nice to be the one to solve such a 'difficult' question.

Damion and Felicia were currently tied for points, causing the jester to announce, "Bonus round time!" out of nowhere.

"What? Is this another test of yours?", Damion creaked out in fear.

"Nah, I need a loser for that. You both have 400 points right now, you see. I could keep going until one of you gets another 100 points, but you're both such clueless babies that I decided to do something different to save time. Aren't I so nice?!"

Felicia, who expected it to be a test too, was puzzled. "So, it's a bonus round of questions?"

"Phhht, lame. This round's real simple, actually. I'll play an audio track made up of lots of sounds put back-to-back. After that, you name them in the right order and whoever gets the most right will win 100 points. Yay! Fun-fun games!"

Damion braced himself, but really, how hard could this be? Before he could say anything back to the annoyingly childish host, she had already started. "Okay, cool, go!"

The challenge began and a speaker played out a dog's bark, followed by a zipping sound. Easy enough to remember. Damion shut his eyes so that he could concentrate on the sounds. The way she gave them no time to prepare was frustrating but expected at this point. However, before he could get too comfortable, he was hit with a loud nursery rhyme. Any chance to make out the rest of the sounds was going to be difficult. He put in the effort, but before long, it was over.

"Such a nice song, don't you think? Ahaha, probably should've mentioned there'd be a song!" She bonked herself on the head and stuck out her tongue to appear cutesy, causing a trail of drool to pool out of her mouth and land on the podium. She got no pleasantries from the contestants, so another laugh track was played. "Anyway, how many could you hear? Lemme remind you that the winner is the one who can name the most sounds in order. Day-Day! How many have ya got?!"

"Um... four?"

"Good enough. Felicia?"

"F-five?"

Damion's heart plummeted. After hearing that Felicia apparently had five, his breathing got erratic, and he tried his hardest not to burst into tears. For Damion, his biggest issue wasn't that she had more, it was that he had been lying. He only knew three for certain, two of which were before the nursery rhyme even started! He placed his arms on the podium so he wouldn't flop to the ground in defeat, but then he almost hit the buzzer on accident. This was a mess.

"Name them for me!"

"Right, so I think it's a dog bark, some zip sound, then uh... one of those wooden frog instruments? Yeah, that sounds about right. A glass smashing sound next, then it ended with a loud meow."

"Ahaha! Loser, so wrong! I'll give you three at best 'cause I'm nice, but it's pushing it!"

Damion looked back up with a hint of hope shining from him. She was wrong! Sure, he also had 'three at best', but he had a chance! After all, he actually had a good idea as to what the final sound was! Watching as Felicia began to sweat, Damion prepared himself to answer.

"Going to try, Day-Day?"

"I will! It's the dog bark, the zipper, the... look I don't know, the g-glass smashing?", Damion stammered a little, but it was a safe bet to reuse one of Felicia's answers and get an extra point. He quickly composed himself and continued. "Finally, there was a quick siren, like a fire alarm. Oh, and uh, probably a duck quack in there too..."

"All correct!" He had done it. "I mean, sure, there were nine sounds and no duck's quacking, but those other four will do! Now you're up to 500 points!"

Felicia's head started to get cloudy. Her body felt dizzy, and her overwhelming stress tied her tongue, with Damion only hearing soft murmurs from her.

"Yay! I guess that means Felicia will be getting the next Test of Maturity! In that case, it's time for another break! Will Felicia win a trip to regression land, or will she go home with nothing fun happening to her?! Find out in a minute or ten!" Henrietta turned around and shoved her diaper onto her podium, shaking her messy rear as the camera zoomed out to show the entire set. This prompted the staff to play a clapping sound effect before they cut the show for break-time.

~ ~ ~ ~

Another break and another moment of terror-filled silence. A silence that must've been too boring for the jumpy jester. "'Sup?! Ready for more fun?"

Felicia didn't reply with any coherency and just stumbled on her speech for a full minute. She instinctively began to chew on her blonde hair, letting it calm her down.

"...What's wrong? Hard time speaking? Please don't faint on me before the main event starts.", the babyish host looked serious all of a sudden. The cameras had cut for brea ktime, which meant Henrietta's liveliness could too. "They'll just make it a longer break if you do drop, so don't get any ideas. There isn't anything you can do to stop the fun games we have planned."

"Is this insanity 'fun' to you?!" Felicia spat out.

Henrietta just gave her a dopey smile back, slipping back to the attitude she usually had. "Mmmmaybe? Yeah, maybe!"

Damion still couldn't pin down how much the jester knew. How much she enjoyed the malice of this 'game show'. Her vacant puppy-like eyes were betrayed by her jagged shark-like teeth. Her bubbly attitude felt natural, but she would always throw in a line that made Damion shiver. Her outfit was no doubt tailor-made for torment, yet she was proudly jumping around in it. The mittens and booties made her dexterity useless and that's not to mention how her jester's hat, with the loud bells and the insulting title written on top, was only there to mock her. Still... there was a slim chance that she wanted to wear this thing herself and be seen as a fool. There was something wrong with her, brainwashing or not.

"W-what...", Felicia couldn't get the words out but got through it. "What happened to Aaron?"

"What indeed~?"

"Shut up! C'mon and-"

"He was sold."

"-tell... huh?"

"He's just a baby now, so we sold him. Got adopted, you could say."

Damion chimed in with hate. "What do you mean by that?! You can't just sell a human!"

"Huh? 'course we can! It's not like he's able to care for himself now, so he really needed a nice new caregiver! Oh! Good timing! See, there he is, ahaha!"

The two contestants turn to the side to see what the jester is giggling at. Behind the cameras was an elderly woman pushing something large. Damion couldn't make out much about her; the woman's dress was regal enough for Damion to guess that she was quite rich, but that was it. However, that didn't matter much to him. His attention was focused on what she was pushing around — a giant stroller. Inside was Aaron, dressed in a soaked diaper, a bib splatted with his own drool, and some poofy mittens. He was playing with a stuffed animal while the woman stopped to talk with staff members about paperwork.

Henrietta waved at the baby playing with his toy, but then turned back to the two captives, who were too busy staring at their potential fate. "Awww! He looks so cute-cute now, doesn't he?! Now he has a kind mommy to change his diapers and trust me, they'll get plenty of use!"

"Why? Why are you doing this stupid trivia show all for... this?!" Damion was at a loss for words.

"Oh, why we do the trivia show? The audience was bored. That's all."

"T-that's all?"

"Ahaha! That's all! Usually it's a reality show, but as I'm sure you can guess, that takes a while to set up. Sooooo, we needed something fun-fun for our audience in the break between seasons. We ended up doing a trivia show this time becaus-"

"I don't care about the show! I care about the deranged babying!"

"Oh... Silly me, I'm such a dummy head! Uh-oh!", she gave a shocked gasp, but it sounded incredibly fake.

"Your audience, they have what they want now, right?", Felicia bargained. "They just wanted a baby to mock, right? So, there's no need to continue with this!"

"Of course we need to continue. We need mid-season content." She got serious again, with little sign of the 'dummy head'. "Don't think you have any ground to argue. You're just the bonus content, a bunch of boring losers who aren't entertaining enough for a main show. You'll be giving the audience the regression they love, and that's your only role. If anything, we're improving your sad, sad little lives. You're all children trying hard to mimic mature adults. Why even bother when babyhood is better? When it's happier? Trust me, this is where your wonderful new life begins..."

"I'm not a child!" Felicia shouted. "You didn't even ask if this is what we wanted?"

"What can I say other than that you should've read the contract? This was avoidable, y'know."

"That's not fair at all!"

"Okay-okay! It's time to get poopy, not pouty!" Henrietta flicked a mental switch and went back to the dumb jester attitude that Damion had somehow gotten used to.

"No, wait we need-" Damion tried to get a word in, but interrupted himself when he noticed what the staff had been constructing while the jester taunted them. On the far side of the stage was a highchair, although it had been made to fit an adult. The tray of the highchair had four low-profile buttons on it, but Damion interpreted this as the tray being weirdly bumpy. The highchair had a metal frame on the back of it, which was made to suspend a black box directly above the highchair's tray. "Hey, what do you have planned next?"

"I'll save that for the show-show! Luckily for your curiosity, break's almost over!"

Felicia had checked out. She watched as Aaron and his new caretaker left the room using a door behind the camera crew. She knew it had to be the exit, but before she could make any further plans, she finally saw what she was about to be put into. The highchair was bad enough, but on the right-hand side of it were what looked to be four transparent barrels. One of them looked to have orange liquid inside, while the other three barrels had brown mush (and based on the theming of this game show), it was almost certainly baby food of some kind. Each barrel had a tube connected to it, and the staff were in the process of connecting each of these tubes to the black box.

"D-damion! Please give me those 100 points, I can't- I won't do this!"

Henrietta snorted at this. "What? There's no sharing points in this game! Not like Day-Day would do that anyway, I mean he's probably secretly happy about this."

"No? Hang on, Felicia, that's not..."

"Welcome back to Brain! B! Gone!", the jester had resumed the show as Damion fumbled to reassure the girl next to him. He felt bad, but Damion was subconsciously glad he got cut off. After all, the host was correct.

Fake cheering and clapping could be heard as the cameras turned back on for more of their terror. Henrietta made a cutesy pose for the audience and then began explaining. "Last time, Felicia failed the trivia round, and now she'll have to go through a Test of Maturity if she wants to keep her adulthood! Want to give up, Felicia?"

"What? No, of course not!"

"Hmm, what if I told you that we ran an audience poll and 87% of them are cheering for your failure tonight?"

"A what?"

"Anyway! I'm actually happy-happy that you were useless with trivia today because I made this next test specifically for you! I know you'll appreciate the little details put into it!"

"...just explain it already."

"Jeez, someone's in a rush to start. Reminds me of my tummy, ahaha! Num-num's just go straight through me, look!" Henrietta then gets out from behind the podium, unbuttons her onesie, and turns around to get the camera to focus on her butt. Once she's in position, she squats down and makes a groaning sound, one that's distractingly loud. Damion hears a toot, followed by the jester's relieved voice. "Ahhh~ Poopy!" She had enthusiastically messed herself, something that no doubt delighted her audience based on the laugh track that followed it, as well as the camera's continued focus on Henrietta, who was now wiggling her diaper around in glee.

"That's just vile."

"Better get used to it..." Henrietta worked hard to button up her jester onesie again. "Oh! Guess I better talk about your test, huh? I'm sure you're itching to get babied already."

Felicia grumpily stood there and listened.

"I call it the 'Feeding Time Barrels' test! You'll be strapped into a cute highchair, stuck there until you've had your yummy food! Don't worry, you won't be fully restrained though since you'll get one arm free! You'll need it to press some buttons we've installed onto the highchair's tray, but I'll get back to that part in a sec, 'kay? The centerpiece of this wonderful chair is this!" As if on demand, the black box suspended over the highchair opens up by the bottom. Out falls a single tube that was connected to the box. The free end of the tube dangled in front of the highchair around head-level. However, the interesting part of this tube was the end piece. It looked like a cupped respirator mask with a strap to go around someone's head.

"This tube is your task, Felicia! It's a feeding tube, and you'll be eating whatever gets pumped into it! Eat all the food and you win! It's that easy! Now you may be wondering: 'Oh little Dum Dum Henri, why haven't you mentioned the four big barrels of liquid?' and that's because I forgot! My itty-bitty brain didn't see them, oh no! You see, Felicia, your task is to eat an entire barrel's worth of food, but you get to decide which barrel to eat from! There are four barrels here, labeled A to D, and you just need to press a button on the tray to decide which one to eat from. You do know your ABC's right? ...just checking."

Henrietta waddled over to the barrels and first pointed at the one with the orange substance. "This barrel here is what I call the 'adult food'. It's laced with a blend of spicy cayenne peppers and vinegar, so you'll need some resistant tastebuds to get through it! But who wants that yucky sauce?! Nobody, eww!" Damion whined. He dabbled with spice but wasn't the biggest fan, so he was relieved that he didn't have to do this test. He wondered if Felicia could handle that stuff, but from her expression, it was clear that she couldn't.

The jester then gestured broadly to the three other barrels. "So, here's the thing with these barrels — I forgot which one is which! Silly me! I do know that all three barrels are filled with chocolate pudding but watch out! Two of them just so happen to have a generous helping of laxatives and Dum Dum! The other one is fine, but you'll never be sure which one is safe just by looking at it!" Damion shuddered again, thinking about what that regression drug had done to Aaron.

After pointing at the barrels, Henrietta returned to her podium. "Ahaha, are ya getting the gimmick yet? You have a 100% chance of success if you force yourself to eat all the 'adult food', or you can take it easy with the pudding and risk a 66% chance of regression! Hmm, I suppose it's 66.66666..." She kept repeating the number six over and over again, but soon got bored. After all, she was about to have a whole lot more fun testing the contestant!

Felicia's chains unbuckled and flew into the podium. Staff members walked on stage to prepare her for her test, but with her legs now free, Felicia took a gamble. She took a deep breath, swung herself over the podium, and darted for the door behind the camera crew. She didn't get far. The moment she left the camera's view, Felicia violently fell onto the stage. A tiny light on her collar glowed green, and the girl was left spasming on the floor. Henrietta just sighed. "Hphm. Can someone turn her head, so she doesn't choke on her own spit, 'kay thanks!"

Even after the collar was deactivated, Felicia was left in shock, one that was far worse than what she received under the stage. She remained shaking on the floor and no attempt of composure was possible. A pool lay next to her head, a mix of her spit and tears. She tried to prop herself up, but her knees gave out every time.

Even after that torture, the jester only wanted to push things along. "Get one every year, ahaha! Anyway, someone drag her to the chair already!" Damion just had to watch. Whatever ounce of hope he had left, whatever part of him still thought he could escape this misery, was now in ruins.

Desperate to get any silver lining out of this, Damion thought back to the man under the stage: He had the remote to activate the collars. Therefore, that man had been watching the show since it started, carefully waiting for one of the captives to try to mess up the show. He was obviously one of the people behind this, but was there any chance Damion could get to him? Any chance he could take the remote? Not really. He could only play his game.

The show continues without any breaks as the cloaked staff picks up the trembling girl and shoves her into the highchair. As Felicia lands in the seat, the buttoned tray is placed over her legs, which are then locked into place. One of her arms is attached to the side of the highchair with tight restraints. To finish the job, they grabbed the piped mask that had been dangling from the black box and placed it over Felicia's mouth. The staff worked to tightly strap it around her head so that it couldn't come off during the test.

Felicia slowly recovered from the pain, and in the meantime, the ditzy 'Dum Dum Henri' distracted the audience with more babyish antics. She dropped on the floor and landed on her filthy diaper, only responding with an "Uh-oh!" before the cheering sound effect played yet again, now feeling expected anytime she did something degrading. Damion didn't care about any of this, however. He just wanted this show to be over. He lightly laid his head on the podium and tried to block out what was about to happen.

~ ~ ~ ~

Felicia's head had cleared up after the shock, although she was still on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "Get me out of this!", she panicked behind the mask. To her right were the tubs of food that she needed to eat from. The first barrel, labeled with a large 'A' was the orange one full of spice and vinegar. It was going to be horrible, but it was better than taking the risk.

"Baby needs to eat her num-nums!", the host then vigorously laughed at the chair-bound girl as she kept struggling in the highchair's restraints. "I think we've had one too many distractions today, so are we ready?! I sure am! It's time to choose your yummy-yummy food, Felicia!"

The challenge had started. The buttons lit up as Felicia despairingly shook her head. Her moist cheeks began to get wet again as her eyes pooled out more tears. "N-No, please! STOP!"

"What's wrong? Do you need to think about it? Phfft, no you don't! Now stop being picky and hit one!"

Felicia shook her hand over the button with an 'A' on it, but couldn't go through with it. She knew the first barrel was the 'safe' one, but it wasn't an easy pick.

"Oh my- You have ten seconds! Hurry up! Take any longer and I'll slappy-slap a button for you! Oh, actually, here's a fun idea! Make us wait any longer, and I'll dump all three of the pudding barrels into you. Yummy, right?"

Selecting a barrel obviously had a time limit but hearing Henrietta's new 'idea' had Felicia rush herself. She slammed her free hand onto the 'A' button and watched as the orange sauce was sucked into the black box which then flowed down to her mask.

Waves of hot sauce were unwaveringly pumped into the mask, and Felicia was made to swallow every bit that was pushed into her mouth. It was abhorrent. The sauce had a strong spice to it, which was a given, but the added vinegar made it sour too. Felicia wanted to spit it all out, but she could only keep swallowing. Her eyes watered up even more, worsened by the overpowering spice. The look of her aggressively crying after eating food in a highchair made her look more and more like a fussy baby. She really did look like a toddler bursting into a flood of tears after being made to eat their vegetables.

Several minutes had passed, and the taste was becoming unbearable. It wouldn't stop until she ate it all or hit another button, something she'd like to avoid. Being forced to eat the horrid food, Felicia felt pathetic... but even then, there was a hint of bravery. She would power through this! She could beat this stupid game and keep her adulthood! This wretched test will soon be over, and she'd win!

Felicia checked the barrel of orange goop. It wasn't even half empty yet.

Felicia yelled through the food. She shut her mouth in defiance, but the amount of sauce pouring out forced her mouth open again. She pulled the tube with her free hand, she tried to yank the mask off, tried to get out, but it never worked. Felicia kicked her legs around and wildly shook her head, hoping for this suffering to end, but it never worked. Some of the food even slid out thanks to her struggling and landed on the highchair's tray. Even some snot had dripped onto the mask wrapped about her mouth. She looked like a mess and felt worse.

Weak and weary, she forced herself to eat and eat and eat, until... She gave up. She reached over to one of the other buttons, not even caring which one she pressed, and then slapped her hand onto it.

The 'A' barrel stopped pumping food out and Felicia, after eating the last of the disgusting sauce in the tube, soon had a short moment of nothing. She took deep breaths to recover while she watched the 'C' barrel begin to pump pudding into the black box. Then, it was back to eating.

The chocolate pudding felt like relief. She adored chocolate, and even in this hellish situation, the pudding tasted delicious. Felicia began to relax as she ate the food, so much so, that the process of gulping down waves of the dessert became natural to her. She cleared the snot from her nose and tears from her eyes. This felt much better. Still, even if this tub was easier to handle, she had no way of knowing if it would regress her. There was a one in three chance that this barrel was safe. The taste of chocolate and sugar would only overpower the drugs, so all Felicia could do was sit there and eat her favorite chocolate.

Cameras zoomed in on the girl as she worked to eat all of the food. It was boring for the show to let her eat in peace, so they had to get some good shots in! Her face made for good mockery, as she now had a trail of orange goop down her chin, making her look like a messy baby. Another camera got a good look under the highchair to see her diaper peeking out. She was only here to be babied and laughed at.

Despite the camera crew, Felicia kept going. She remembered how Aaron had instantly turned into a brainless baby after losing. Yet, even after eating so much of the pudding, she was still fine! This must have been the winning barrel! Eventually, the tank of food had emptied out and Felicia slurped up the last bit of chocolate. To reward her, the highchair's tray unlocked, the mask came undone, and the restraints around her limbs detached.

Henrietta was ready. She grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her onto her feet. "Hooray! You chose the pudding instead of the icky adult food! Much better, right?!"

"Y-yeah... that was awful, but I did it!"

"You sure are proud of eating that baby food, so you must be a baby after all!"

"Shut up and let me out. I picked the right barrel! No 'dum dum' or whatever, so I win!"

"What makes you think you won?"

"Huh? I'm fine, so I win! Could it be any clearer?"

"Ohhhhhhh!", the jester let out an exaggerated sound. "Is this because Aaron turned into a dumb baby so quickly? Ahaha, you're so stupid! It's obvious that an injection would be more effective! The liquid version takes a while to kick in!"

"...what?"

"Yeah, what?" Even Damion was confused. He had been trying not to pay too much attention to what was going on, but the jester's comment caught him off guard.

Henrietta teased the ignorant girl by patting her stomach, which was now slightly bloated from all the food she had eaten. "Let's hurry-hurry and check if you've lost or not! Now, hold my cute hands, yay!", she cheered as she held out both of her mittened hands to Felicia.

Felicia felt confused and just did what the jester asked. She had won, right? The only way to really know was to do what the host wanted, and so Felicia kept listening to her, "Now squat down with me like this, you can do that, right?" She could! Felicia lowered her body just like she did. "Hmm. Your tummy was really full, and I bet that sucks! Nobody wants a bloated tum-tum, right?"

"Nuh-uh..." Felicia was worried. It was true, she didn't want to be this bloated. All that food was too much, even if it was yummy.

"Oh no! What if your bloated tummy gets mistaken for baby fat?! We should deal with this right now!"

"Noooo, I'm not a baby..." Felicia pouted. She didn't want someone to get the wrong impression of her! Felicia wasn't a baby; she was a big kid!

Felicia's stomach growled and felt wrong. She needed to fix this. Something in her wanted to get flushed out right now, but she kept holding it in! That wasn't good for her! How can she even fix this?!

Questioning what to do, the blonde-haired girl looked over at Henrietta. She was panting and wiggling her butt around, ready to mess herself yet again. She kept wiggling as she whispered, "You need the relief, so why don't you just push it out? Just let go~ You'll feel much better~"

Felicia squinted as she groaned. She wanted to let go. Henrietta told her too, so she needed to let go. She had to let go, she had to! Felicia squatted lower to the ground as she put more pressure on her bowels. Suddenly, as if it were co-ordinated, both girls started to load their diapers full of filth. Both of their onesie's popped open to show how heavy their diapers were now. Henrietta had pushed her diaper to the limit and giggled at how big it was. Felicia, on the other hand, was stuck in an endless daze. The only feeling Felicia had right now was happiness. How happy she felt pooping in her diaper. How happy she felt watching the diaper sag below her. How happy she felt squishing and playing with it.

"Much better, isn't it?", the jester smirked.

All Felicia could respond with was a soft "uh-huh". Her mind emptied as easily as her bowels did. She began to chew on her hair, but this time her oral fixation was not due to stress.

"Does baby want something better?", Henrietta cooed and worked to take the hair out of Felicia's mouth. The jester took out a bright orange pacifier and slowly aimed it for Felicia's mouth. She accepted it without any issues and began to brainlessly suck on it. "See?! Much better! But, just in case there's any icky adult thoughts left, lemme just-"

Henrietta placed her palm on Felicia's head and softly pushed her backward. She lost balance and landed on her mushy butt, forcing it to be smooshed about. The feeling of this was impactful. She now sat on the floor and made cute little noises through her pacifier. Any semblance of thought left had her head.

The jester shot straight up, threw her arms in the air, and cheered. "Hooray! Another loser, another cute baby!" Damion finally lifted his head up from the podium. Being made to watch another failure — another regression — was miserable. Still, he could now breathe easy. Surely, with all the other contestants regressed, he had won the game. He was the only one left after all!

Sadly, nothing in this game was that simple. Henrietta waddled back over to her podium. "Ahaha! Don't tune out just yet, this show isn't over until I need a diapee change! After this break, we'll get to play the final round and see if Day-Day deserves his brain-brain!"

"The final WHAT?"

"You don't get to run away from me that easily, silly! Unless I fall on my butt, of course!". A laugh track was played as the show cut for what Damion hoped would be the final break. Just a little more of this mayhem and he was free...

Chapter Text

The show cut to break, leaving Damion with only the rattling chains to talk back to, as the annoyingly bubbly host went backstage to deal with a regressed Felicia. The ominous staff were busy cleaning the stage up and any attempt Damion made to interact with them was ignored entirely, so all he could do was reflect. With two out of three contestants eliminated, there was no real reason for a 'final round'! He was the *only* contestant left, so by all means, he was the winner!

He sighed, knowing that *of course* the producers of this messed-up show wouldn't let him go so easily, but Damion continued to hope for the best. Unfortunately, his hope very quickly turned into a pitiful pleading as Damion leapt past any semblance of logic — now ruminating on "prank show" theories — laughing to himself with the thought that his younger brother would hop out to greet him any second now.

Damion's theory crafting was interrupted by a new thought, one that instantly flicked him back to his sad reality. He noticed how long that jester girl had been absent for, and all of his potential answers for 'why' weren't pleasant. Damion sunk his shoulders and an unwanted acceptance was instilled in him.

Perhaps this madness was as simple as he was told: a deranged producer wanting nothing more than to regress people for the fun of it. As for the producer's identity, Damion could think of no-one else other than that suited man with the shock collar remote. But who was he? His only chance for answers would be now, before the show returned from its break.

"Hey, man with the remote! Whoever you are, get out here right now!", Damion kept screaming in a determined panic. It was hard to be communicative with a man whose name he didn't even know, but he still tried his best. "I want to bargain with you, I just want a chat! I-I'd happily pay you anything, so just stop this!"

No response.

Shaking the talkative chains around his feet, Damion attempted to force a meeting with the producer, hoping that being a nuisance was enough to get him to walk out. Sadly, any noise he made was useless in front of a deaf audience, as not even the staff tried to shush him. He continued a little longer, now even pleading for the jester girl to return, but he'd soon reject these words.

Damion was quietened by a booming giggle backstage. Henrietta, still in a messy diaper and her ridiculous jester getup, skipped onto the stage along with her masked staff. The staff were pushing in a large platform trolley, presumably carrying a brand-new trap. Damion was only unconfident about this because the trolley was covered up with a large, rugged black cloth. The staff left it in the center of the stage, by order of the jester (who was now dancing with joy).

"Yay! It's the best one, I love-love this test, ahaha!", Henrietta enthusiastically rocks back and forth whilst staring at the curtained contraption. She struggles to keep her vile imagination inside her own head, mumbling out a "bouncy..." for only herself to hear. However, her staff still needed time to prepare for the final round, causing the girl to sigh loudly, deciding to annoy Damion to keep herself busy. "Day-Day must be ready for the finale, right?! I bet you've had a great time today, but it's about to get even better!"

"Are you shitting me? This is the worst day of my life!"

"Jeez, stop being so dramatic! It's not like you need to change my diaper or anything!"

Damion, in a burst of morbid curiosity, looked over his podium to see the state of Henrietta's diaper. She hadn't fixed the onesie buttons that popped open during the show, so her diaper was on full display. Even without a back view of the jester, it was obvious that her saggy, stained diaper was on the verge of collapse. Although, he didn't even need to look at it to know if she had messed it to the limit, as Damion smelt it just fine. In fact, he had a hunch that even if he were on the other side of the stage right now, he would still be able to get a whiff of her.

"I just don't- I don't understand why- Like, why-", Damion stammered, trying to process why she continued to wear something so disgusting. This girl was undoubtedly sadistic to follow along with the kidnapping and the game show, but *surely* she was brainwashed into this. He felt it was impossible for somebody to willingly be *this* depraved. Damion thought of the producer in the suit, and how he had likely changed her to be his fool. He then thought about the worst-case scenario: what if this was what happens to the winners? He shuddered, trying to forget about that hypothetical hell.

"Struggling to speak? Are you slipping into baby babble? Ooh, do ya need some water or something? Actually, that's a good idea- Hey! Can somebody get him a drink of water?!"

"N-no, I don't need-" The staff acted fast, promptly placing a bottle of water onto the podium.

"Well, *I* don't need you croaking on the show. Drink up. I can always get the shock collar to convince youuuuu~", the jester grinned. While she hated using the shock collar, it made for an excellent deterrent to 'persuade' her unwilling contestants.

Damion quickly gulped the water down and while he didn't want to admit it, he really did need a drink. It tasted a little odd, but Damion chalked that up to an after effect of his hangover. He sighed as he slammed the water bottle down, deciding that he didn't want to spend his energy talking about the girl's lumpy diaper. Besides, he felt he had a better chance of getting information if the questions were more relevant to the game show. "What took you so long? Last break wasn't nearly that long."

"Missed me? Oh Day-Day, that means a lot, but I'm taken!"

"Was it... Felicia?", Damion looked at Henrietta with disgust.

"Good guess, actually. Ooh, good timing too! Look, see for yourself!" In the corner of his eye, Damion saw two individuals heading for the exit door that sat behind the cameras.

The first was who he was dreading most; Felicia was walking in nothing but a messy diaper. She was facing Damion, but her eyes darted all over the room (as though this was the first time she had seen a stage before), and she didn't react to him at all. She was unmistakably a baby now. Her left hand was busy shaking a rattle, while her right was being held tight in the other person's hand. Felicia's felicitous rattle was noisy and brightly colored. It was obvious enough to feel almost suspicious, with Damion imagining the producer 'kindly' giving her a noisy rattle to guarantee her being seen and heard by everybody. Walking closer to the door, she giggled away from Damion forever.

The guy who held her hand looked well-dressed, but more importantly, was content to have Felicia with him. Based on Aaron's circumstances, Damion guessed that this man was her new daddy. The two continue to walk (or in Felicia's case, waddle) over to the door. Damion is left more confused than upset, however, as he swears he recognizes this guy! Not personally, but he thinks he remembers seeing him on TV before, maybe even in a recent big-budget film! How big was this show's clientele if they got big shot celebrities here?! Damion reiterates his confusion out loud, thinking it would entertain the jester long enough to get crucial information out of her.

"Phhft. We're really hidden, but people love-love our services! We've been doing this show for years now and have met lots of rich people looking for a little spice in life. I guess you don't *need* to be rich to get your own regressed baby, but it's often clients who already have everything and just want a little companionship."

"H-Have they not heard of a dog or something?!"

"I mean, sure, they first try boring, normie pets like dogs, but it's never good enough for some. They quickly move onto exotic pets like a giant lizard or whatever, but when they start to think bigger and better, eventually the idea of a human comes up. A few calls later and then they come to us! Ahaha, aren't we so kind to help them?!"

"Uh, no?! A-Anyway, where the hell is that guy in the suit? I want to speak to him..."

"Oh, you mean Daddy?"

"R-Right, him. Tell him I want to bargain."

"I don't think Daddy cares. Wow, that's pretty lucky for you, because it means you get more of me!"

"I wouldn't call that lucky..."

"How rude! I'm very nice and affectionate and cuddly! At least, that's what Daddy says!"

Damion sighed. "I don't see how someone who sells babied adults can be affectionate."

"Aww, c'mon! And here I thought you were the kinda guy to be all over this! Your very own human, made to be yours forever! All stupid and obedient for you!"

"Yeah, no. This is *not* what I'm into."

"Strange. I mean, your family has dabbled with this before..."

Damion had to double-take after hearing that. He thought she was joking at first, but the look in her eyes was dead serious. "W-Whoa, hang on! There's no way my family have ever-"

"Hey. Want to know why you're here?" Henrietta gets up close as her voice turns more grave and serious. Her usual bubbly tone flipping off for a moment. "I'm happy to tell you. Knowing the stakes makes the last part of our show *much* more entertaining, so go on... Get curious."

Damion was taken aback for a few seconds, but regained composure to keep up with the questioning. "S-Something about one-night-stands or whatever?"

"No. Made that up. I mean, it's still true, we've done enough research to know that you suck at getting laid, but we don't really care about that. I'm not one to be judging others about lust anyway. I'll still mock you for it though."

"Alright, so why am I here?"

"Think a little, it might be your last time!", The stinky girl giggled, flashing her razor-sharp teeth and playing a fool again, if only for a moment. "Okay, look. Usually we take people randomly, but sometimes we get a nice bribe to make our victims a little more personalized. This is a power play, Damion. You're here because somebody wanted you out of the way."

"T-That's... Okay, is this about my father's business? I'm due to inherit it, after all."

"Pretty much. Can you think of anybody who'd want your family business more? Anybody who finds you to be a hassle?"

"N-No, of course not! I don't see how getting rid of me like *this* would help anyone!"

Henrietta can't help but laugh. She genuinely looks to be trying to stop herself from snickering, but every attempt ends in failure.

"W-What's so funny?"

"Dumb, little Damion... It's your own brother, obviously! Ahahahah! He wants to take your silly family business, ditching you to take it all for himself! You're only here because what better way is there to get rid of an older brother than to make him into a poopy baby?"

Damion is silenced by his own denial, stuck in a loop as he keeps trying to reject his brother's apparent betrayal. He kept having thoughts about how jealous his brother was, but forcibly shrugged them off, thinking that he couldn't have been *that* envious of his position... Right?

Henrietta doesn't seem to care enough to wait for a retort though, as she keeps talking, "You deserve to be a baby if you didn't even suspect him even once. Usurping is expected when it comes to family matters like this, jeez." Henrietta took one look at Damion's finished water bottle and smiled to herself. It didn't matter if her final contestant was still in shock, she was bored, and her game show would continue right now!

Still, the jester wanted a moment to get into the right mood. She started by patting her cheeks with her mittened hands, hearing her outfit's bells ring loudly. The bells always made her giggle, but she needed something that made her *really* excitable. Henrietta dropped her arms down and desperately began rubbing the front of her diaper. Her giggles now were accompanied by spit and whines. In the middle of her vigorous rubbing, she grabbed her pacifier (connected to her jester's bib) and shoved it into her mouth, now drooling excessively on purpose. She wasn't done yet though, as Henrietta loudly shouted, "Ahaha, mushy diapee! Stupid jester loves big stinkies!"

Happily a fool again, Henrietta spat out her chewed-up binky and spun around towards her camera crew, commanding them with, "Okay, okay, I'm good-good to go! Show time!". Henrietta slapped the water bottle off Damion's podium, which made him alert again. With sudden fanfare and no further prompting, the show resumed.

"Welcome back to Brain B Gone! We're in the final stretch now, which is good, because my diapee needs a change! Ahaha, it's okay though! Silly babies like me love messies!" Dum Dum Henri waddled over to Damion, giving the camera the perfect shot of her lumpy diaper being sloshed about. She slammed her mittens onto his podium and shoved her head closer to his, before exclaiming, "Day-Day! You're the only one lefttttt! It must be so lonelyyyyyy!"

Damion was not in any mood to be dealing with this girl right now. He stayed silent, but unintentionally let out a defeated sigh.

"Look everyone, he's so sad! It's because he's lonely and wants playmates! Don't cry, crybaby, it'll be okay. You'll be with Aaron and Felicia in no time!"

"...What's the final round?" If this was happening, Damion wanted it over with.

"Ooh! Before that, I'd like to show you what happens if you lose!" Henrietta's eyes darted over to the mystery object covered by the black cloth, while Damion rolled his.

"Most game shows are lame-lame and wave you goodbye if you manage to fail this far in, but not me! Ahaha, sometimes I need my hands strapped around me, so you see, I can't wave bye at all!" As if to celebrate her lack of restraints, she flaps her arms aggressively. "Day-Day! You have one final hurdle to bunny hop over! Before we get to that though, I'd like to motivate you!"

Henrietta ran to the trolley and pulled back the black cloth. The jester gestured to her machine with pride and Damion couldn't help but stare at it. It looked to be another hellish 'Test of Maturity'. Damion's chest felt both heavy and restless, knowing that the audience was only here to watch him be 'tested' and fail like the others had. However, as he got a closer look at the contraption, he felt a strange pang of relief. It was an enormous baby bouncer placed on top of a platform (one that was tall enough to need a staircase to climb it). There were two monitors facing the bouncer, but nothing else. No other device here, no gimmicks, it was literally just a scaled-up bouncer. The other two contestants' 'tests' were needlessly complicated, so seeing something this basic gave him some confidence.

"Are you serious? You want me in a bouncer?"

"It's not just 'a bouncer', it's THE bouncer! It's my favorite recurring test, so much so that we do it every-every show! I call it 'The Counter Bouncer', but hey, if you win this final round, you won't even need to get in it!"

"Phhft, alright. What's the final round, then?" Damion didn't take the bouncer seriously, but a part of him felt that his sudden overconfidence was just him trying to downplay all the stress that had built up during this show. His own brother wanted him in that trap... There was no way he was losing tonight.

"It's actually very simple. I'll list famous cities around the world, and you'll tell me what country they belong to. Just some easy-peasy geography. Oh, I should also mention that you're timed too! It's okay, you only need 5 points in five minutes to win, so no biggie!"

Damion raised his eyebrow, confused why they'd make country trivia his final round. Due to the short time limit (and how hard her other rounds had been), Damion didn't feel comfortable and tried to mentally prepare himself for the worst. The jester jogged back to her podium, got out a stack of cue cards, and cheered, "Yay! Let's fly around the world! Ready?"

"Y-Yeah... let's start."

Instantly, the sound of a clock ticking spread throughout the stage. "Question one! Your first city is 'Vila d'Eivissa', also known as 'Ibiza'.

The clock wasn't helping Damion's brain, only adding stress. "Uhhh, Italy."

"Wrongggg! It's Spain, specifically the Balearic Islands if you wanna be technical, and I know people love to be really, really, *really* **really**-"

"Give me the next one."

"Ohhhh, you must've been thinking of 'villa' as in, like, Latin for mansion. Ahah, silly baby mistak-"

"Next one!"

"'Dubrovnik'."

"Right... Well..."

"Wanna skip? As in, go to the next question, not skipping around on the stage. That sounds like good fun-fun though, ahaha!"

"...Poland?"

"Croatia. Next one: 'Phuket'."

Damion wasted too much time already. He needed answers out *now*! "Indonesia."

"Nope. Thailand. Next is 'Natal'."

"Netherlands?"

"Brazil. 'Albacete'?"

"Argentina? I don't know..."

"It's Spain again. How abouttttt 'Kiel'?"

"S-Sorry, what?"

"K-I-E-L, Kiel."

"Uhh, Denmark."

"Hah, close. Germany."

This kept on going on and on. Damion had no clue about the current time, so all he could do was answer questions poorly. Unfortunately for him (and only for him), a loud buzzer blared out. "Uh oh, that's the failure alarm! Your five minutes are up! You lose, loser!"

Damion's new-found confidence was shattered as he pleaded for a retry, "H-Hey, c'mon, you talked through half of it, I, ugh, I think I deserve-"

"You deserve bouncies! You lost and got zero points! I expected you to get at least one, but no, you got nothing! So, prepare yourself, 'cause there's no way to back out now!" Damion was dead silent, steadily approaching the verge of tears. His brain could only think about his brother, who had condemned him to this show. Out of all the options to deal with him, why had he gone with a cruel and unusual punishment? Did he hate him that much? Or perhaps his brother did like him, but weighed the pros and cons of their relationship, deciding that his livelihood could be thrown away for a business opportunity. Regardless of his brother's reasoning, Damion felt defeat.

Meanwhile, Henrietta took this 'spare time' to be bubbly for her audience. "Ahaha, even my dummy brain could do that! Hey, while the loser boy whines about needing happy-happy bouncing time, let's look back at the questions. Did any of you at home figure out the connection between the countries? Wowies, that's right! All of them are places Day-Day has been to before on his little one-nighter travels. He's had fun with women everywhere, yet he doesn't remember a single city. Ahaha, guess that means he doesn't need those memories anymore!"

Damion's silent agony quickly turns to fear. He starts to freak out, breathing more heavily as tears hit the podium. He stares at the exit door behind the cameras — slightly ajar to taunt him — knowing that the first time he'll walk through it, he'll likely be as dumb as a rock, just like the other contestants. Damion tried to catch his breath as he realized the inevitability of being shoved into a bouncer. More than anything, he wanted to run away but remembered the shock collar. The last thing he needed right now was to be electrocuted like Felicia had been. There was no escape, he had to give in to the jester's demands.

"Keep your eyes on me, everyone! We're not cutting to break, nope! I'm too much of a cranky baby to wait any longer, so let's play! Ready, Day-Day?!"

"...W-Wha-"

"Cool, I don't care. You're getting fun bouncy-bouncy no matter what you think about it, loser! Bleh!" She playfully stuck out her tongue as she stomped her foot. This must've been a cue, because the masked staff members ran in behind Damion and grabbed onto his arms at exactly the same time as his leg shackles unbuckled.

"O-Okay, how about- Yeah, I can pay you! I... I can pay you. Whatever he offered, I can double it!"

"Playtime is priceless to me. Nice try though." Henrietta let out a demonic giggle, eager to see if all of today's contestants would fail her beloved tests. She rubbed her diaper some more as she yelled, "Go! Go! Get him in the test!"

Before Damion could get a good look at the platform he was to be 'tested' on, one of the staff members shoved a second collar over his neck. This one connected around the shock collar but was far more bulky. While Damion struggled to look behind him, he was certain there was a needle embedded around his neck, injecting him should he fail the test. Without explanation, the staff nudged the final contestant to start walking to his doom.

For the first time tonight, Damion got to walk around. Sure, it wasn't intense movement, and he was being led about by others, but it was enough to notice... it. Thus far, the diaper he was forced into was a nuisance at worst. Just something to space his legs apart, something to remind him what this show's messed-up theme was. But now? Even though Damion's head rattled with his own fears, he couldn't stop hearing the crinkles. The sounds of his diaper added onto the jester's laughs, and he felt utterly mocked. He was the producer's plaything, made to waddle towards the bouncer as the giddy audience waited for him to be pinioned.

Damion is pushed up the staircase connected to the tall platform. He is then commanded to step on the bouncer's seat, which currently lay drooping on the platform floor. As soon as Damion places his feet into the bouncer's leg holes, the seat quickly rises into the air and lifts him up. As the seat fits snuggly around his waist (covering his onesie and diaper), the staff members begin to tie up his arms onto the arches of the bouncer. This process practically leashes his arms to the bouncer, giving him enough wiggle room to move around, but not to run away. Something strange catches Damion's attention, for he notices how the seat barely lifts him into the air. Sure, he could force a bounce by bringing his legs up, but it wasn't really a 'bouncer'. However, his confusion soon came to an end. He looked down at the platform he was standing on and finally saw it: he was stepping on top of a trap door.

"Remember, you have one final chance to redeem yourself in the Test of Maturity! You can *still* leave with your adulthood, but I mean, it's so much easier to give up, right? I think you should just bounce and be a baby forever! Sound good?!"

"N-No! I want to do this; I want to leave!"

"Yay, you have some fighting spirit now! It's gonna be fun to see that break!" The jester hopped in front of the trap's platform and slapped the monitors pointed towards Damion. They both turned on, with the first monitor showing two zeroes, while the other monitor showed a countdown timer set at two minutes. "Now, listen! I need to explain some stuff, which is hard for a babbler like me! Are you paying attention?"

"Yes, just... explain."

"Great! The Counter Bouncer is a returning test of mine. Basically, it's a giant baby bouncer suspended highhhhhh in the air, and obviously that means that your goal is to bounce for us! There's not much space to bounce though, is there? That's because you're in the safe zone! When the test starts, a trap door opens and you fall down! Fun! The gravity of the fall is enough to get you to start bouncing, but you can stop yourself from moving by resting your feet on the platform you're on right now. Don't think you can just get lazy though! On the floor, underneath the trap door, lies a pressure plate. Step on it with enough force, and you get one point which'll show on the monitor here, yay! You need to get 90 points in under two minutes, or you lose! Losing gets you a nice big-big shot of Dum Dum, but I'll also leave you in the bouncer for a while to amuse the audience, ahaha!"

Damion was taking all of this in, wanting to make sure every detail made sense in his head before he had to endure this. In his deep concentration, he didn't even realize how long he'd been silent for.

"I think your blank face means you're ready, yep!"

"H-Hang on, let me just-"

"The longest hang time in the air for humans is under a second, but the bouncer will increase that a little. Soooooo, all you need to do is constantly bounce for two minutes, and you'll hit 90 easily! Anyway, maybe you forgot my charming commentary earlier, but I'm a cranky baby! We need to start right now, or I'll get bored!" Damion gulped, saving the energy he'd use to argue into working on his motivation and nerves. "Everybody, it's time for the final test of Brain! B! Gone!"

Damion felt a primal urge to keep himself safe, and so his feet were rested on the edges of the trap door. When it opened, he stood on the platform in fear, not wanting to be here anymore. However, the moment the game started, a familiar clock ticking sound rang, with each tick matching the two-minute countdown timer. Damion *had* to move! With a sigh of resignation, Damion drops into the trap door. The jester cheered, watching the contestant kick his feet around, bouncing up and down with an annoyed grunt each time.

His first few bounces were pitiful, and he barely managed to reach the bottom of the platform. He obviously needed more force. So, Damion swallowed his pride and put his full effort into the bouncing, jumping around like an eager toddler would. From then on, each bounce would effortlessly hit the pressure plate, making one of the monitors start to count upwards. He wasted a little time at the beginning, but with 100 seconds left, Damion had managed 16 bounces. Each jump looked to be a little over a second, which in Damion's mind makes this test extremely easy! He just needed persistence and he would win this! He would leave and go back to a life of normalcy!

Henrietta had other plans. She had already set everything up, so all she needed to do now was wait. The little jester sat on her podium, swinging her feet around as she let herself fall into her own daydreams about being stuck in that bouncer again. Her theoretical playtime would have to wait though, because if her calculations were correct, the *real* playtime would be happening in about five seconds...

Damion gulped, feeling a little embarrassed to be doing this for an audience, but otherwise felt unworried, even internally gloating about how simple this test was. As if to punish him for his arrogance, Damion heard a loud groaning sound from his stomach. He felt a painful sensation which matched the unwelcoming rumbling and knew instantly that something was really wrong. Damion tried to shrug this feeling off, hoping his body would take care of itself (or at the very least, if the worst were to happen, it would wait until after the two minutes were up). Unfortunately, his body refused to listen. His focus waned heavily and very quickly found his bounces to be too light to hit the pressure plate. Damion started to panic, thinking that this had to have been a case of bad luck, but then... he knew.

It was the water. Damion wouldn't get any confirmation, but the jester had to have meddled with the water bottle, likely with laxatives or something to upset his tummy. She was too insistent, and the staff were too quick to give it to him. Now it was clear that this was the real test all along.

Damion looks at the monitors: one minute, and only 40 bounces. He thrashes his body downwards to hit the pressure plate, but the added force was a mistake. His body felt it was unsafe to hold it in anymore, and so Damion could only whine as everything happened all at once.

It all started with a noisy toot, announcing a heavy log of poop which squeezed out between his butt cheeks and into the diaper. He grunted as he bounced upwards, quickly stopping his bouncing by resting his legs on the platform. Even though he dolefully knew what his body wanted to do, Damion still felt shock after he pooped himself. He wouldn't usually give bowel movement any second thought when it was on a toilet, but now?! He couldn't stop thinking about what he had done. His cheeks flushed red in humiliation, but after hearing the jester yell out, "Yay! Day-Day made poopies!", his redness was now from anger.

However, this was only a brick in the wall, as a flood of liquid filth soon poured out of his anus. The laxatives he drank had made the rest of his stools watery, almost like diarrhea. Damion could do nothing to command his body to slow down, and with a messy pool yet to be drained, an explosion roared out into his diaper. He spent several seconds whining as he let every droplet out. Henrietta was cheering as he did this, but secretly felt a little discontented. Her quick-acting laxative was still very fun, but it wasn't a miracle drug or anything. Every use would end with a flood of wet mess, instead of her preferred process of building a captive up, only to watch them break and drop solid stools for her.

Upon noticing how bad his messing actually was, Damion kept still as he stood in the 'safe zone' of the bouncer. He felt a slight cramp, but this was the last of his revulsion's. The feeling of his mushy diaper cradling his own poop grossed him out, especially since the bouncer's seat was tight enough to keep pushing his mess upwards, letting him feel every little bit of it. Damion shivered and then started to cry again. He couldn't believe this had happened! The feeling of it was bad enough, but the smell only made him more disgusted, as his accident wafted up to tell him how real all of this was. He had messed his diaper like a baby and was expected to bounce around in it for entertainment.

A peek at the monitors again: he had 40 seconds left. He needed more time to recover, but it was time he didn't have. Damion pumped himself up to do something horrible, and with a slap to his face, he was ready. With so little time, he *had* to be. He shouted out to the jester in a moment of determined hate, "Watch this! I'll win your game! Just... AHHH!" Damion dropped back into the trap door, bracing for the inevitable.

His mess was already pressed up thanks to the tight seat, but with the jumping, his stinky diaper became a toy to the bouncer as it thrusted up and down. "Ewwww!", Damion grunts with detestation to the joys of the jester listening in. He did not care to keep his calm anymore, not while he was doing something like *this*. He looked over to the jester girl, who had let out a loud giggle to show him she was loving every second of this, and it filled him with spite. Damion had 30 seconds left, but only had 56 points. If he pushed himself, he could do this! He can still make it out of this!

Forcibly, Damion put more energy into his bouncing, working to get back to the speed he was at before his messing. He gets faster and faster, working through the sloshing of his diaper. He wants to stop, but he knows there's nothing he can do except bounce in his dirty diaper. The singular hard stool he made earlier was now smooshed, being pressed against his butt cheeks and the bouncer seat. Henrietta leaned forward to look at Damion's diaper, sighing loudly as she noticed it wasn't leaking. Had he messed a little more, it would've splatted out for the magenta-haired jester to giggle at even louder!

The clock ticking becomes deafening, not in volume, but in how it stuck in Damion's head. Eventually, the smelly bouncing boy looked up and felt visceral anxiety. He had a measly 5 seconds left. He was at 85 points currently, knowing that if he managed one every second, he would win! Putting in every bit of energy he had, Damion jumped up and down aggressively, letting his weight hit the pressure plate to score just a little more. Damion started to feel worn out at this point, but he was determined to push himself! It was all up to this moment!

Down to four seconds now. 86 points.

Three seconds. 87 points. Getting tired.

Two seconds... one second... 88 points...

Failure. An alarm blares out, just as it did with Aaron's test. Damion shut his eyes, wanting everything to stop and fade away. In some sense, he'd get that wish. A light on Damion's bulky collar flashed bright red, and suddenly a needle pricks the back of his neck. It's quick, with the sting only lasting a millisecond, as the contents of the collar were dumped into Damion. His body was exhausted and the only objection he could mumble out was a "W-Wa... Wait!" The pure potency of the injection showed itself as he immediately starts to feel dazed and numb. His mind is running through a million thoughts, which will be the last time they get any use. Damion, in a disbelieving defeat, stops his bouncing; his mind slowing down along with the speed of the bouncer.

The jester is here for a show, however. With an applause sound effect playing, Henrietta jumps off from the podium and waves to the camera with a big smile on her face. "Oopsieeeee~! You lose! Oh, looks like all our contestants lost, actually! Oh well, ahaha! Well then, Day-Day, you've won in your own little way! You now get more bounce time, yay-yay!" The bouncer springs back to life, automated to keep the bouncing going until somebody physically turned it off. Unfortunately for Damion, the staff weren't in a hurry. He's sent up and down with full force, so the audience can get the encore they wanted.

The fast-acting Dum Dum gives Damion a fluffy feeling inside. Instead of pure disgust over his poopy diaper, or a sigh after being made to bounce again, Damion now only feels a jubilant fog clouding his noisy mind. In effect, the drug is distilled nostalgia, letting his mind slip into an infantile emptiness — a calm he's never had the pleasure of feeling before. All the mayhem that happened tonight feels irrelevant now. His thoughts of fear and stress, that ever-present anxiety he's had during this game show, they all flutter away.

Henrietta is content with the outcome of this show, knowing that three babies have been regressed and sold today. It was a win-win-win, the contestants would get a better life, their new caregivers get a babbling compaion, and Henrietta gets paid! With her show coming to an end, she lets the audience watch the finalist degrade himself further. "Hope you all enjoyed the show today! I need to get my big stinky diaper changed, but I'm not the only one, am I, Little Day-Day? Any final comments to wrap the show up, bouncy baby?"

"Eheh... Ehehe..." Damion has no closing statement — not even any confusion — only childlike joy. He continues to giggle as he feels his stinky diaper squish under him. A bubble of spit leaves his mouth, along with a smile.

"Nothing? Good! Babies like us don't need thoughts when our caregivers can do the big thinkies for us, ahaha! Oh yeah, you're getting a new caregiver, isn't that fun?" She waited for a response again with a mocking pause, before going back to her talk, "Uh huh, exactly! Well everybody, thank you for joining us tonight on Brain B Gone! Keep an eye out for our schedule for more babying fun! Bye Bye Bye Byeeeee!" She plopped the chewed-up pacifier back into her mouth as she turned around and shook her butt to the camera. The cheering sound effect played again as the camera panned over to the bouncing Damion, letting the audience see a little more of the regressed finalist before the show ended.

In time, the staff gestured to the jester that the cameras were off and the show was officially over. "Great show, guys! Now are any of you gonna give me changies?!" She winked at her staff, their masks hiding their eye rolls. "Okay fine, clean up the stage for me, 'kay?", she giggled as she waddled offstage in a hurry, getting an urgent change now.

Damion is approached by the masked staff, but he's far too dazed to care. An adult-sized stroller is pushed in, and after lifting the stinky boy out of the bouncer, he is gently placed into it. His onesie buttons have come undone, showing how dirty his diaper is. If the camera was still on, they'd laugh at how far he had been regressed. A budding young businessman, reduced to *this*.

Minutes pass and Damion is sent backstage, waiting in his stroller as he sticks his fingers in his mouth. With some self-awareness left, Damion pulls out his fingers and looks down at them, feeling a little self-conscious. Something about this was *wrong*, but he couldn't put it together. Everything was too cloudy, with thoughts too hard to make and bliss too easy to feel. Even deducing the reasons for feeling 'wrong' was too much effort, so he simply stuck his fingers back in.

"There he is, all cute and stupid for you.", a voice rings out. Damion looks around to find Henrietta, or at least he *thinks* it's her. His perception skills have degraded, but her magenta hair is unmistakable. His confusion came from how the girl was now out from her jingly jester outfit, currently wearing a large turtleneck with a long, brown plaid skirt. Her teeth were somehow not pointed anymore, while her hair had been brushed nicely. She stopped smelling like fecal matter, but Damion was unsure if she was still padded or not. All traces of that drooling jester (who had shoved her poopy butt to the cameras only ten minutes ago), were gone.

Next to the now-presentable girl was an older man. He spoke softly, cooing at Damion, "Oh, look at him, how cute. Aww, does somebody have his fingers in his mouth?" Damion babbled in response, recognizing that he *did* have his fingers in his mouth, it's true! He began to get self-conscious again, knowing that doing this was silly to them, but didn't know the words in his head to answer *why* it felt that way. He continued to suckle on his fingers to soothe himself as he lay perplexed in his new stroller.

"Look, Day-Day, it's your new Daddy! Don't you feel so happy with him?!" The two adults continue to talk, letting the absent-minded baby drool and babble. Damion didn't really understand what she meant by 'Daddy', so he just sat there and listened. He struggled to make out some of the big words that the two were saying, but it all felt very 'business-y'.

One more person walks out backstage: a large, suited man. Damion has a faint recollection of seeing him today (a part of him even got scared seeing him), but thinking about it felt like a hurdle, so his brain simply stops. The suited man walked over to Damion, removing the bulky collar he had on, and then begins conversation with Henrietta.

"Your show was excellent today, Little Miss. Ignore me while I clean up the equipment."

"Jeezzzz, Daddy! I'm in the middle of a transaction, you're a real lousy servant sometimes!"

"I'd fail to call someone who can deal with your diapers 'lousy'."

"Ahah, true-true!" Henrietta flips back to her client with a stern face, says more business words that Damion fails to understand, and then mentions, "You'll need a constant supply of my Dum Dum Drug if you want to keep him this stupid forever. Usually once a week for injections, or once a day for liquids. If you want to humiliate him more, you can always tweak dosage to let him keep some awareness, but I recall that you said you wanted the real deal."

"That's correct. Do you deal with every part of his lifestyle arrangement, such as the crib?"

"Ahaha, 'course we do! His new furniture still needs to be paid for, but I doubt that's a problem with your profession. As for the memory erasure you wanted, we can get that sorted now, if you'd like?" The last remnants of Damion's adult mind heard this and desperately tried to fight it. He still struggled to answer why he felt weird, but he had enough mental clarity to know how bad 'memory erasure' sounded. However, his newfound baby side was much more domineering, and so the most his lingering adulthood could manage was to gently rock the stroller and whine. The stroller's restraints and his tired body meant that he achieved nothing, except embarrassing his unyielding adult brain.

"Uh oh, baby is getting noisy! Y'know, there's plenty of ways to tweak that, in case you find it annoying, ahahah~"

"No need, I don't mind if he has tantrums or anything like that. It's just what a baby does."

"Hmm, alright. Just remember that our services are always open." She winks, before handing the man something that Damion didn't see in time. Damion is curious for a short moment, but his adult mind wrangled control and rejects it. He wanted to get out of this stroller and go home! It was so hard to think straight, but he figured he could just tell them that. Make them know he felt wrong! All that came out was babble and spit.

"Say ahhh~!", the man cooed at Damion, sending a bright-blue pacifier towards him. It had a large latex teat, and he didn't really know what to do as it was brought closer to him. The reason for this was indecisiveness. His adult side was clinging on, trying to swim through his foggy mind and form a coherent thought. As for his drug-induced little side? He opened his mouth eagerly.

The pacifier was guided in, and Damion wrapped his lips around the nipple. Every loud, slurpy suckle that he made would empty more and more of his adulthood out. His new daddy asked him if he felt much better, and truthfully, he did! He didn't need to worry about anything anymore. He was so silly for being stressed and thinking something was 'wrong'. In fact, he was wrong for thinking at all! Babies like him didn't need to do that! He had Daddy now and he was happy!

Henrietta crouched down onto the floor, leaning in to chat with her newest 'product'. "Aww, so cute now! Y'know, you were a fun one, Damion. You actually remind me of myself when I was young: rich, but with nothing to show for it. Some of us just aren't cut out for adult responsibilities, but instead of shaming that, I'd say it's better to accept it. I'm much better suited as a cute baby, and I think you'll be much happier now too! Don't worry, I'll tell your brother that you're doing well, then wish him luck with his new business. Soooo... Goodbye, little Day-Day!"

She waved to Damion, telling her staff to deal with the rest of the transaction. The aspiring businessman was now making cute little murmurs behind his pacifier, while his daddy pushed the stroller through the backstage hallway. It was another job well done for the producer, both in performing as an adorable jester, and selling off their cutest babies yet. Maybe she'd reward herself tomorrow with bouncer time, but for now, she kept waving to the boy as he was taken away to lose his memories. There was no need for them anymore, after all. He was just a dumb baby now.