Escape

Chapter 1
Whole Story

Chapter Description: whole story

Somewhere on the “UsBox Now”, a stream went live. Simultaneous updates on both public and supposedly private social media sites alerted subscribers to the feed. Anyone tuning in would have seen a pastel blue blur filling up the camera for an awkward few seconds before the figure in front of it slowly and carefully backed away, a plastic crinkling sound punctuating each step.

To Amazon eyes, it was an adorable baby girl, barely a toddler despite her curly strawberry blonde ringlets. Surely, she wasn’t big or mature enough for potty training. Her blue pinafore dress had undersea decorations patterned on it, and no diaper was immediately visible, but the pacifier clipped onto her collar was a hint.  Toddlers and preschoolers ready for potty training didn’t tend to get the suckles. Common wisdom dictated that the matching ‘panties’ in view were poofed out for a reason.  Someone must have gotten a hold of their Mommy or Daddy’s phone and was trying to play silly baby games like Veggie Samurai.  Precious!

Tweeners would see what they often saw: A Little who hadn’t managed to keep up with the Amazons.  The smallest folk often stumbled and bigger arms were always there to catch them and lower them even further into a crib.  Based on the tall wooden bars in the background, this analysis was more than mere metaphor.  It was a fifty-fifty split on whether this was a call for help or they were putting on a show for their new parents to delight in.  It was so hard to tell or predict with Littles.  They often took so well to their second go-round at childhood that it was easy to forget that chronologically they were adults.  Those who had Amazon relatives or friends might quietly agree that even if it wasn’t something Littles wanted, and that Maturosis was a lie, such accommodations might just be what was best for them.

To Littles, this was a preview of a nightmare.  Full stop. No further notes.  Watching Littles act like babies online was tantamount to watching a snuff film.

And to a select cross-section of the internet, it was Grade-A thrilling entertainment.

“Hey,” the Little girl said, waving to the camera. “Hope this is going live.” Her neck craned forward.  “Yeah. I think so. Light is on.  Signal is going strong. Good.  So..uh…” she cleared her throat.  “Hi. Alexi here, and in case you haven’t guessed, my Alexicons-yeah I gotta get a better name for my fans- but in case you haven’t guessed, I’ve been adopted.  No, no, no, this isn’t me signing off, do not hit that unsubscribe button!  I’m doing the Amazon Escape Challenge.”

Awkwardly, she flashed two thumbs up to the camera.  Anyone who had viewed Alexi Live and any of her numerous Little-centric film, television, and book reviews, not to mention her Let’s Plays  before would recognize that the Little was clearly off her game and uncomfortable.  First timers who just stumbled onto the channel thanks to the algorithm might think she was a rookie at this sort of thing.

The next thirty seconds, however, showed a bit of professionalism on her part. “So um...for those of you who haven’t been watching for the last three weeks, watching me prep, or who haven’t heard of it before, I’m doing the Amazon Escape Challenge. You get caught. You get adopted. Aaaaand you escape and tell everybody out there what it was like on the other side of the playpen.  I didn’t start this challenge. That credit goes to Mini-Mimi and Tweener Tom, but just because I’m not the first doesn’t mean I can’t be the best.”

Her monologue done, Alexi’s hands flopped to her side and she started gesturing and looking around in the crib. “So yeah. I let myself get caught at a local park. I was sucking my thumb and clutching onto a teddy bear, and that apparently was enough for somebody to want to adopt me.  Antiope Argyros plucked me up, adopted me, and within the day had this whole nursery set up.  Here, let me show you.”

The camera’s view radically shifted as Alexi grabbed it and panned around the room.  Through the wooden slats of the crib, viewers were treated to what could be called either a horror show or something so mundane as to be somewhat boring depending on the height of the viewer.  “There’s the rocking chair where I sit in her lap and she reads stories while I drink from a bottle.  Those shelves with the bins have toys; I haven’t played with them very much so they’re still quite organized. And of course, over there in the corner is the changing table.”

The camera stayed in and zoomed in on the changing table, with stacks and stacks of diapers folded underneath with wipes, cream, and baby powder within easy reach up top.  “Speaking personally,” Alexi narrated, “My family never had a changing table.  Littles tend to potty train and grow up quick, so for my  brothers and sisters and me my parents were like ‘Why buy something that they’re gonna grow out of in like two years?’.  But I guess for Amazons it makes more sense, cuz...you know...they want babies who are never going to grow up.”

The phone whipped around to show Alexi’s face.  “Also I know it’s kind of hard to see from where we’re at, but there’s lots of different diapers stacked under there.  Miss Argyros bought something like a variety pack of diapers, so there’s lots of different brands and designs and styles.” A hint of a blush rose in the girl’s cheeks.  “She’s having me try a lot of different ones to figure out which ones work best for me...or her...or...oh you know.”

Audio picked up another exhalation while she gave a final slow pan around the nursery. “The creepiest part is this room was an empty guest room until about five hours after I got caught.  A bunch of men came in, Tweeners mostly with an Amazon boss, and they set it all up after just one phone call.  How weird is that?  Like, I don’t know which would have been weirder: For her to have a nursery all set up, or to just have an empty room and a service on speed dial to turn it into a nursery in less than a day. They even added in those sheep stencils and painted everything pink.”

Back to her face, viewers saw Alexi’s eyes narrowed as she read comments trickling in.  “How did I get my phone in? Oh yeah.” The camera whirled around to show a large pink fluffy teddy bear, head slouched and button black eyes dead to the world.  “So this teddy had a zipper back and had enough stuffing in it, so I was able to hide my phone and charger in it ahead of time.”

The camera showed Alexi’s hand pressing the bear’s stomach. “You’re my beeeeeest friend.” A deep goofy pre-recorded voice mumbled out.

“I just had to stick my phone right next to the bear’s voice box and nobody noticed. Right now, I’m kind of using him as a camera stand. Which reminds me.”

Viewers were treated to more shaking and rustling as Alexi readjusted the camera on top of the bear..  “So yeah.  It’s been about two days since I got caught. I’m filming this now because I’ve learned that Miss Argyros likes to take a shower during what she thinks is my naptime. The walls here are pretty thick, but you can still hear the shower turning on and water moving through the pipes. So I’m pretty safe.”

The streamer’s eyes darted on the screen, reading more questions and comments.  “Okay. Sure.” The bloomer-like baby panties slowly went down to her knees and the blue of her baby dress contrasted more with the increasing scarlet of her flesh.  “As you can see, I’m currently diapered. These are Monkeez, which is really weird, since that’s what I used to wear as a kid, just not as big.”  The camera caught a decent shot of her trying unsuccessfully to peel the tapes away.  “Also as you can see, the tapes are Amazon strength; so there’s no way I’m getting out of this without a box cutter or something sharp to cut through.”  

Her blush lessened as she yanked the faux panties back up over her hips, the very tip of the waistband still on display until she yanked the hem of her dress back down.  “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, I have wet. Yeah. It’s super gross. Fortunately, as uh...Amazon-y as the lady who took me is, she’s at least very good about changing me when I say I need it.”  Her blush doubled down as her eyes unfocused.  “Not that I wanted to be changed and have another adult see me naked and wipe my butt for me, but she’s much better than the people at the daycare.  You’d think that they were the ones paying for the diapers or something.  They won’t change you if you’re not ‘wet enough’ or some junk.”

A new light showed in the streamer’s eyes as the candle of thought and memory lit for her. “Oh yeah.  I’ve already been put in daycare.  I’m not gonna risk trying to smuggle my phone in that place. Too many eyes, and not just the people who work there.” She took a deep breath.  “Lemme tell you guys, if you think it’s weird walking down the street and seeing a Little in a stroller, it’s even weirder when there’s two dozen of them, they’re all in diapers, and they’re all clearly loving it.  Some barely talk, and the ones that do have totally bought into the lie; insisting that they’re babies. It’s bizarre. I’m pretty sure that at least one of them is old enough to be my dad or something.”

Dramatically she rubbed her temples.  “It’s really weird and frustrating, and on one hand I can’t imagine the kind of trauma those people have endured, and on the other hand it’s really gross when people start pooping their pants right next to everyone and won’t say anything about it because they want to finish watching cartoons.”

Alexi tilted her head.  “Oh yeah. That’s another thing.  The cartoons.  First off, they’re not hypnotic, not the ones at this daycare anyway, and they’re pretty good. Still, I’m kind of mixed feelings on this.  Like, there’s almost an entire hour of ‘cartoon time’ at the daycare, it’s on their schedule and everything.  And like...on one hand I’m glad not to have a giant hand poking it’s finger in my pants or someone trying to blow raspberries into my tummy or whatever, but it’s like...if these Amazons actually believed that we were babies, just plopping us down in front of a screen and walking out of the room…? How messed up is that?”

Like a kid with her hand about to be caught in the cookie jar, Alexi’s head jerked around.  “The water just shut off. Okay. Looks like shower time’s over. That means I gotta go, turn this off, and smuggle this back into my teddy bear!” She blushed and squeezed her legs together slightly.  “Also...I kinda gotta pee, so I’m gonna have to do that real quick and then get changed.”  Waving to the camera, she signed off. “Okay. Bye for now, Alexicons! Hopefully when you see me next, I’ll be back home safe and sound and in my big girl panties!”

The view was blocked by the palm of her hand before the screen went black and the feed cut.

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

The next stream a few days later was even more adorable and/or horrifying than the first. For starters, it didn’t take an eagle eye for viewers to spot the bottom of the diaper peeking out from underneath Alexi’s purple polka dotted sundress.  “Hey there, Alexicons!” the second stream began. “It’s your girl, Alexi!”

She let out an almost  weary sigh.  “So I’ve been like this for about a week, and I’m still here.  Mommy’s got the house pretty much Little proofed, so I gotta think that if I’m gonna win the challenge, it’s going to have to be by getting out of the daycare. I told her that I was feeling sleepy so she plopped me back here in my crib. I’m not too worried about her catching me, though. She can’t resist her shows first thing after getting home from daycare. Who knew there was an Adoption Court reality show every weekday at four-thirty?” Alexi visibly shuttered.

Without preamble, Alexi sat down, splay legged so that her subscribers got a good look at the bottoms of her black patent leather shoes and her diaper. The girl made no move to cover it up or adjust the hem of her dress.  “I wasn’t quite lying. Daycare is...well..it’s work.  The Grown-Ups are super condescending, calling all Littles babies, and treating us like we’re children.  This one volunteer who fed me lunch in a highchair today came over from the local highschool.  Kept trying to get me to eat mush by telling me it would help me grow up big and strong.”  Dramatically, the streamer rolled her eyes. “I’m done growing, girl. I’m as big and strong as I’m gonna get and telling me otherwise isn’t gonna make me want to eat that jar of strained beets.” She huffed.  “Amazons. Amiright?”

Leaning in, her eyes focused and narrowed, reading the comments. “Guys. Guys, I’m sorry. Something must be wrong with my phone. I think it’s glitching. Unless a bunch of people are just smashing their keyboard, it’s getting hard to read what you guys are typing.  Something weird must be going on.” Her eyes lit up with recognition before clouding over with dread. “Oh. One word is still coming loud and clear. ‘Diapers’.”

With a weary sigh, Alexi started to talk about her uncovered underpants. “Yes. I’m still wearing diapers.” She lifted up the hem of her dress all the way to her bellybutton.  As you can see, today’s model from the jumbo variety pack is a Koddles.  It has Helga Hogg decorations. That’s the flat looking piggy on the landing strip.  Personally, I prefer Jasper and Jinx, it’s one of the ones they show at daycare, and I think there’s something artistic about wordless storytelling.  I don’t think they have Jasper and Jinx diapers, though.”

Alexi paused and shook her head like trying to get cobwebs out of her noggin. “Anyways a feature of Koddles is a lot of them have this pee line going down the middle,” she indicated the yellow strip running between her legs. “That means anyone can tell when I’ve gone pee-pee because the color changes from this light yellow to a bright blue.  As you can see, I’m very, very dry.”  There was a bit too much pride in that statement.

She let go of the hem of her dress, but the bulk of her diaper kept the Koddles well in sight and the hem bunched up in front.  “I’ve had to get used to it of course. Daycare has scheduled changing times, so depending on the time I’ve had to go pee-pee and just learn to play and watch cartoons in a wet diaper. And well..” she wiggled uncomfortably in her seat. “It’s not that bad.  The other thing though…” her face paled. “I’ve done it twice and didn’t like either time.  I’m gonna have to get out before it happens too many more times, I think.” 

Still wiggling, the girl leaned back and kept talking to the camera in her crib. “I think my best chance to escape, like I said, is gonna be at daycare.  Probably on the playground. Pretty sure that I can figure out a way to climb the fence. It’s chainli-”

“Oh! That reminds me!” Alexi interrupted herself. “Weirdest thing happened on the playground today.  We got a new kid...I mean a new Little checked into the daycare today, and for a second I thought it was Linked Up Lily!  If you’re not subscribed to her channel, you should be, she’s totally an inspiration of mine, and I think she said she was going to do the Amazon Escape Challenge too.”

A moment of screen reading and struggling to decipher and Alexi replied, “Um...no. I don’t think this was actually Lily.  The Grown-Ups at daycare called her Liliana, which is close, but no cigar.  She had a different haircut, too. Like her hair was waaaaaay shorter than Lily’s, and plainer too; Lily is super famous for her long and wild colored hair.” A beat.. “And more importantly, this Lily was totally mindf...you know, I can’t use the preferred term because I don’t want to get demonetized, but the people who know know.”

Nervously, Alexi began biting at her nails. “You should have seen this poor girl. They got her bad. She was having a hard time walking, and it wasn’t just cause of the diaper; super uncoordinated.  Needed help getting up the slide and such.  And then right in the middle of everything, she was like running to the swingset, and she stopped, just froze, and um…” For the first time that stream, Alexi blushed. “She messed herself. Said it loud enough while she was doing it too.”

A shudder served as transition between Alexi telling her story and idly biting her nails to full on sucking her thumb.  Her unconscious squirming stopped and a relieved smile spread across her lips while they suckled on her thumb.  Anyone staring at Alexi’s crotch would notice the wetness indicator on her diaper turning bright blue, leaving nothing in doubt about what was going on in the girl’s baby pants.

A second later, Alexi’s eyes brightened and she seemed to come back to herself. “Anyways, I don’t think that was Linked Up Lily.  Pretty sure anyways. I’m finding a lot of the cartoons here pretty neat though! I’m gonna have to get a subscription or something to watch them after I finish the challenge!  The toys aren’t bad either!   I’ve got this four option pop up jack-in-the-box type toy, with different animals, and they say different things depending on the order that you pop them up in, so there’s like...a whole bunch of things you can do with them. Really cool! I kind of wish I had had something like that when I was a baby the first time.  I mean...”

Alexi froze. “Uh oh! I don’t know if you can hear that stream, but footsteps are coming.”

The stream was treated to her teddy bear’s pink underside while Alexi hurriedly hid her only link to the outside world. “Hello, Lexi!” a much deeper, matronly voice could be heard.

“Oh. Hi Mommy!”

“I heard a certain someone talking instead of taking a nap.  Are you not tired anymore? You weren’t fibbing were you?”

Viewers could hear a note of panic in Alexi’s voice. “No Mommy! Not at all. I’m not a fibber! I was just telling Pinky all about my day at daycare and all the new friends I’m making.”

“Awwww,” the Amazon could be heard cooing. “How about you and Pinky come and watch cartoons in the living room for a bit?”

“Okay!” The joy was spontaneous and genuine. Alexi wasn’t that good of an actor.
The pink plush curtain was removed and the stream kept going for another two hours, with just a view of the mobile dangling above the crib.

Those still tuning in finally got some new developments to the sound of a door squeaking open, and the faint sound of crinkling and humming.  Then a gasp. “Oh no!” came Alexi’s whispers.

Her face came back into full view as crib bars slipped by. “Uhhh...sorry guys. My Mommy came in and me and Pinky and her watched cartoons for a while.  I was so good at watching them that Mommy sent me ahead of her so I could pick out my next diaper.” Just how infantile and bizarre that must have seemed was evidently lost on the girl.  “Good-bye for now!”

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

Two days later a new video was uploaded to Alexi’s UsBox channel. 

“Hey guys!” she waved to the imagined audience. “Just giving you an update! It’s the weekend and Mommy is talking to a friend of hers, setting up a playdate with one of her friends and their kid!”

The camera panned around the nursery, this time without wooden bars.  “As you can see, Mommy trusts me enough now that she’s leaving me in my room and letting me play as much as I want, though she leaves the baby gate up just in case.” She giggled uncharacteristically and stuck out her tongue.  “Pinky is still in my crib. He’s my bedtime buddy, so I’m having to hold my phone all by myself like a big girl! On the bright side I found a good spot to recharge my phone right behind the diaper pail.”

“Oh oh oh! I almost forgot! Have you seen my new diapers?!”

She didn’t need to hold the camera back as far as she did for future viewers to get a good hard look at the plastic backed nappy taped around her hips. The (mostly) white decorated diaper was the only thing she was wearing beneath her light yellow t-shirt.

Just in case, the video included what some might consider a less-than-tasteful shot of what was going on between her legs. “These are called You-Ni-Corns,” Alex said.  “Cuz they have these pretty unicorn horse thingies all over them and they’re super comfy and pretty and Mommy says they’re made just for Little babies like me!”  Experienced caregivers would also note that the diaper, while not overly discolored, did swell and sag a bit with bits of the sap bunching up and clumping together where they’d done the most work.  Wet. But not in dire need of a change...yet.

“I think I’m going to ask Mommy to get more of these cause they're super comfy and none of the other girls at daycare wear anything like them.  Whether you’re a baby or a big girl or a Grown-Up, sometimes you don’t want someone wearing the same thing as you.” A silly smile spread on her lips. “At least you don’t have to go all the way home to change.” Gayly,  she laughed at her own joke.

“I won’t be reacting to the comments on this video,” she said, more seriously. “Something’s going on with my phone where I can’t read any of the words. I gotta get it fixed.” 

She tilted her head in thought.  “Actually, I think it’s more than just my phone. The words in the books that Mommy reads to me every night are looking funnier and funnier.” She shrugged. “No big deal though. It’s more funnerer to listen to her read. She does all these silly voices for all the different characters and stuff.”

From the camera’s point of view the room started bouncing with the girl. “Like there’s this one voice she does that sounds juuuuust like Momma Kangaroo in this one cartoon I just found called pocket pals where all the critters are marsupi-...marsh...they all have pockets that their babies get to ride in!, I gotta get her to watch it with me but they say it’s a special one that only good girls and boys at daycare can watch!”

The next several words that came out of her mouth were so speedy and incoherent that it was nearly indecipherable over the loud crinkling that came with her constant jumping.  Fans of the show who were still able to talk might recognize that she was describing the entire first season in all but one breath (albeit very much out of order).

“And then Mr. O. Possum was like…like…”  Alexi stopped. With her free hand, she grabbed the pacifier clipped onto her shirt and stuck it in her mouth. “Goffa..” she said. “Goffa go…”

Her eyes stared into the distance, unfocused, and her cheeks puffed out like a bullfrog.  With a long, heavy exhale, she groaned, and let out a soft smile. “Poofff”

The girl’s eyes came back into focus with a blink and the color drained away from her face as the spark of recognition lit a fire beneath her.  “I gotta go! Bye!”

Comments would speculate that this was a deep fake. Others would guess that poor Alexi remembered how to upload videos through muscle memory and icon recognition; a pre-reading skill, they’d insist. Unfortunately for the Little girl, she hadn’t quite re-figured out how to edit out the part where she openly and flagrantly messed herself before posting.

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

“Hi everybody out there in internet land! It’s me! Lexi!”  Canny recent viewers would notice that the Little streamer had her hands free and wasn’t in her crib. Even cannier voyeurs would realize based on the nursery’s geography that her phone was likely propped up on a lower shelf of the changing table, possibly leaning against a stack of diapers.

Speaking of diapers, it could be argued on whether or not a purple t-shirt with frilly sleeves and a stiff rainbow colored tutu counted as a dress; it was indisputable that they did nothing to conceal the babyish undergarment. The knee high socks and velcro sneakers didn’t contribute anything to the girl’s modesty; that was for certain.

“I just got back from daycare and they taught us this really neat dance that I wanted to show you!  It’s called the tipsy wipsy dance!  I’ll show you!”

“First you take your hips and you get a little tips...eeeeeeee!
Then you take your bowl and you stir it and stir it...one-two-three!
And you flap your arms just like you’re a flying bird...eeeeeee!
And you kick your feet and you sing a little song...do-ray-me!”

Alexi’s dance might have been cute to the digital onlookers...if it had been anything remotely resembling a dance.  The Little sang the song acapella, and amelodically.  If there were steps to this “dance” they didn’t match the lyrics.  They mostly consisted of Alexi jumping up and down and spinning in circles and shaking her rump for the cameras. 

“One more time!”

“First you take your hips and you get a little…”  she froze.  She bent her knees.  She clenched her fists up tight and stared at a point on the wall off camera.  Alexi never was quite certain how big or small her viewers were; how many Littles, how many Tweeners, how many Amazons.   

Whoever they were, they got a good view of what came next: Brief popping, tooting sounds made their way to the camera’s microphone. What came next was evident to all who could see. Alexi had planted her feet so that her profile was in perfect view, and whether they were cooing, gasping, or cringing, every one of Alexi’s viewing audience got a front row seat of the back of her unicorn diaper expanding and drooping while red faced. Alexi huffed and grunted until at last…

“Poopy!”  It sounded almost celebratory.
Shamelessly, Alexi started singing and dancing again, such as it was, her diaper bobbing along with every movement and gyrating motion she made.  “And you flap your amrs just like you’re a flying bird...eeeee!”

A giant figure came into focus in the background.  “Is that someone singing the tipsy wipsy song?”  her Mommy said from the other side of the room’s baby gate.

Alexi threw up her hands.  “Yeah! Mommy! Wanna do it with me?”

Mommy carefully stepped over the babygate, her black hair and olive skin a contrast to the Little’s fair complexion and fairer hair. “Oh I don’t think so, baby girl. That’s a dance that’s best done by Littles.  I’ll watch, though!”  She sniffed.  “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?” Alexi looked genuinely worried.

“I think I’ve got a Little Lady Lexi who filled her diaper right up!” Mommy said. “Let me check.”  She knelt down to one knee, taking her massive palm and cupping it to the Little’s bulging backside. “Uh oh. Yup! I definitely feel some poopy in there!”  Rather than blushing, the Little girl giggled into her palm.  “I’ve got a stinky baby on my hands! Let’s get you changed!”

The ‘baby’ girl only gave more delighted giggles in reply.

Mommy glanced over at the camera. A dark cloud gathered. “Lexi?  What’s that?”

“It’s my phone, Mommy!” Lexi said, cheerily. “I’m showing all my friends on the internet the dance I learned at daycare!”

And just like that the sun came out. “Oooooh!” Mommy said. “Is my Little baby girl a streamer?”

Theatrically, Lexi threw her hands into the air “Yesh!”

“Awwwww! Isn’t that cute!  Your friend Liliana from daycare used to have her own UsBox channel, too.”

“Really?” Lexi squealed in delight.

“Really, really! That’s what her Daddy told me.  Now the only streaming she does are the pee-pees in her pants.”

“Oh wow! That’s so cool!”

Mommy chuckled. “Let’s get that stinky bum cleaned up, and later you can show me all the cute videos and streams you’ve recorded.”

Lexi’s legs went out of view as her Mommy stood up and moved her on top of the changing table.  “Really?!” she squeaked.

“Really, really,” the Amazon cooed. “Hold on just a second.”  The view blurred as it was whipped around and held over Lexi’s prone form.  Not blushing at all, the girl waved from her spot on the changing table.

“Hiiiii!”

“That’s right,” the Amazon lady said. “Wave bye-bye to all your friends!”

“Byyyyyyye!”

The last thing the broadcast recorded was the sound of diaper tapes being ripped off.

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

“Hey everyone, Antiope Argryros here,” the Amazon waved at the camera. “Or as this precious Little one calls me, ‘Mommy’.”  The camera panned over to a Little girl, her hair in blond ringlets laying on a forest green park bench.  Bashfully, the girl smiled past the rubber teat of her baby bottle, waving to the camera.

“Now I don’t know if you can tell just by looking, fam, but I’ve got a young lady who definitely needs a diaper change. Oh my goodness, you are so soaked! Aren’t you?”

Lexi giggled. “Uh-huh!” She punctuated her sentence with a loud burp and finished downing the bottle full of juice.  “All gone, Mommy!”

“Good job!” the Amazon told her.  “Now can you be Mommy’s special helper and hold her phone and talk to the people watching at home while Mommy changes your diaper?”

“Sure!” the girl peeped. “I’m super good at this!”

“I know you are!”

The camera moved wildly to a close up of Lexi’s face. “Hi everybody!” she said over the sounds of her diaper coming undone. “It’s Lexi again!  Mommy said that I’m too Little to be doing my own channel so she’s gonna be taking it over so I can do more ‘portant stuff.” No trace of irony, agony, dread, or disgust could be detected.  “That way I got lots of extra time to play and cuddle and watch cartoons and play and figure out what flavor crayons are and learn new dances and play and watch cartoons and-   Mommy! Cold!”

“Don’t be naughty,” Mommy’s voice could be heard off screen. “I’m not gonna let you get a rash. The sooner I get you cleaned up the sooner you can go play.  Keep talking.”

“Yes ma’am!” Lexi adjusted her view to the camera. “So Mommy is getting me a bunch of new play outfits, and that’s really neat, but she also wants to get a bunch of different diapers for me, so like if I’m wearing a monkey outfit, I can wear Monkeez, and there’s these pink Hippo diapers for if I’m wearing pink- I mean the girl diapers are pink, boys have blue that’s super important- or if I’m gonna be her Little Piggy she’ll get me the Koddles with Helga Hogg. I still wish they had the Jasper and Jinx diapers, those’d be neat.  But anyway, I really like my You-Ni-Corns, and as I was tryin’ to tell her, unicorns go with everything but she wouldn’t listen.  Mommy’s, amiright?”

“All done,” Mommy said, taking the phone away. “You can go play.”

“Yay!” Wearing nothing but a teal t-shirt that stopped at her belly button, velcro light up sneakers, and a freshly taped diaper, Lexi waddled off the park bench and started for the playground where four or five other babies at or around her age were already at playing.

“”I told her she wouldn’t get to go play until she finished her ba-ba,” Antiope winked at the camera. “Parenting hack.”

Before she’d properly stepped onto the playground, the Little stopped.

“Lexi? Are you okay?” her Mommy called out.  As if in reply the tiny form bent her knees and clenched her fists. “Uh-oh. I know what this means.” With huge Amazonian steps, the camera whirled around to see a blank faced Lexi starting to puff her cheeks out.
“Yup. Thought so.”

The cell phone camera, this one Amazon made and designed, picked up the quiet grunting and moaning leaking out of Lexi’s lips.  “Lexi, honey,” Mommy asked, not quite taunting. “I thought you wanted to go play on the playground with all of your Little friends.”

The first reply came not out of the Little girl’s mouth but from her bottom as several rude noises reported out from behind her.  Tiny toots and farts rang out so fast and clear that no one would mistake what she was doing. It was almost cute. 

“Lexi?  Lexi, baby? What’s my baby doing out here on the sidewalk in front of everybody and the whole internet?”

Another grunt. Another groan. Another muffled toot made to smell sweeter thanks to a fresh layer of baby powder. And finally a word from the Little chatterbox.  “...Poopin’.”

Viewers got the ‘treat’ of seeing the whole thing live as Lexi’s Mommy stepped around and got the perfect shot of the fresh diaper ballooning out. The effect was even more pronounced because of how fresh the diaper was. The camera caught as each and every crease was pressed and smoothed from the inside out.

“Never fails,” Mommy clucked. “Put them in a clean diaper and they go and mush in it.”

“All done!”

“What was that?” Mommy asked.  She stepped back around. “Can you say that one more time for all the people watching on Mommy’s phone?”

The girl grinned, seemingly proud of herself. “All done!”

Antiope let out a good natured laugh. “Awww, okay sweetie. You can go play, now.” The camera was treated to the sight of the Little waddling onto the playground, the lump in her backseat obvious even as she climbed up to the tiny slide. “She’s so precious.”

After Lexi slid down, not even flinching at the spreading muck in her pants, her Mommy stepped in front of the camera, so that both her and her new baby could be seen. “So before we begin, I’d officially like to thank the creators of the Amazon Escape Challenge. I think it’s a really good way for Littles in need to find their Mommies and Daddies without feeling too scared or overwhelmed about the whole thing.  I would encourage all Littles who think they’re independent and mature to test it out as either way I think you’ll be satisfied with the results and maybe even learn something about yourself.”

Little viewers, assuming there were any, likely recoiled at the idea paired with the image of Lexi jumping on a teeter totter to play with another diapered and adopted Little.

“For those of you worried about the change in format, don’t worry. This channel might be under new management, but you’ll still get to see lots and lots of Lexi. I might be the host but she’ll definitely be the star.  Being a Little, she just doesn’t have the attention span to update this channel enough to make it really successful.”

As if proving her point for her, the Little was already off the teeter totter, leaving her playmate whining and crying without her.  She fell backwards onto her butt, but otherwise seemed unbothered as she picked herself up and toddled to the merry go round.  “I’m gonna have to work on that…”

She addressed the audience. “But see? Lexi isn’t going away. If anything you’re going to be seeing a lot more of her, while we show you fun games and songs and tricks for bath time and nap time to make everybody else’s life a lot easier.  You’ll just see her as her true self, and not the Grown-Up she was pretending to be before I met her.”

 “We’ll have something for everyone,” Antiope continued.  “If you’re a Little that doesn’t have a Mommy or a Daddy, you’ll see what you're missing out on. Or if you do, you can watch this with them and get ideas for play time and snuggles! If you’re a Tweener, I’m sure this will help convince you on how you can best help your Little friends or land that babysitting job you were hoping to get from the parents across the street.” 

The narration continued as the giantess strode onto the playground. “In fact, the only thing I think my lovely Little Lexi won’t be able to help you viewers at home on is potty training.”  To herself she added. “Oh, we can do product reviews too. She was pretty good at that…”

The aside ended at the top of Lexi’s head came into frame. “Okay, Lexi. I need to change your diaper again!”

Like a kettle on boiling, giggles shrieked out from the Little’s throat and she waddled away. “Noooooooooo!” Any Amazon parent would infer that the adorable child didn’t really mean it.  She just wanted to be chased.

“Thanks for watching!” Antiope said. “Now if you excuse me, I’ve got a Little in a full diaper trying to escape!”