Quality Control (Patreon)

Carly wasn't stupid, despite what her co-workers all seemed to believe. She knew exactly what she was there for, why they'd hired her, and it was not, as one of her co-workers, Jack, had told her once, that she was a diversity hire, or, as another one, Melissa, had said, "It's silly for us to make toys and not have the input from someone in one of our core demographics!"

She was there for meetings just like this one, where she sat in her special booster chair around the meeting table and listened to everyone else doing their best to not give any specifics as they talked about their newest product. "So, Carly," one of them asked finally. "What do you think?"

"It looks cute to me," she shrugged. "I mean, it's pink, it's fluffy, it smells good, it comes in a gift set with some chocolate... Sounds like a perfect Valentine's Day present."

Her co-workers smiled triumphantly, complimenting one another, faces filled with pride. She decided not to mention that she'd consulted on it, helped pick the design, so she deserved some of the credit, too. She doubted anyone who had come to her for advice was going to stick up for her, either... They had never seem like official visits, one of them just stopping by, seeing what she thought of a picture of the newest prototype, her telling them to use a different fur, or make the ears a bit smaller.

It would have been easy to stop them there, to 'help' them make it worse, so nobody would want it... If she did that, however, then their intended audience would never buy it, and if it was bought for them, they'd probably return it without using it, and everyone would stop listening to her, and she wouldn't have a job. It was better, she thought, to actually help, to make them trust her, and one day she'd be able to betray them, to take them down a peg...

Somehow. She hadn't quite figured that part out yet, and the longer she stayed here, the more comfortable she was, the more raises she got, the less certain she was of when she'd ever move on to the second phase of her plan.

This would have been a good time... From what she'd gleaned, this was a particularly sneaky little product, one that could do a lot of damage... But there were always other ones that could be worse, that could have a bigger impact if she waited, and she was saving up for a new car...

"And what about advertising?" another inquired. "Our studies say these programs would be the most effective to reach... your audience," they flipped to a new slide, split into two groups of television shows, "and these would be the least. Do you agree?"

This was the big one, the place where she could make the largest dent in their profits... They could design the perfect, most devious, toys, but if the wrong people saw the wrong commercials, it would wreck everything. There would be at least two of them, one telling littles all about how great the teddy bear was, how it could be their new best friend, and another for Amazons, informing them of its real purpose. 

The latter would circulate online eventually, once a little - or a 'tweener or Amazon sympathetic to them - spotted it, recorded it, posted it with a warning. By then, especially with a limited, seasonal release like this, most of the damage would be done, and there would be enough posters ready to call it a hoax to sow doubt. If the speculation did gain traction, the company would pull the spots early, or switch them out with the little-targeted ones, so anyone trying to find the others to prove they existed would be foiled.

She shouldn't help them... She should tell them they had their research flipped, saturate the airwaves with the wrong commercial so everyone saw the real thing, and there was no way they were fooled, if they got it as a Valentine's gift... But she did really want to get that new car.

"I'm not sure about the baking show," she pointed at the Amazon side of the slide. "I've been hearing more of my friends talking about watching it."

Did she feel a bit guilty, seeing her co-workers nod, take notes? Of course... That wasn't going to stop her now, however. Maybe somewhere down the road, for their Christmastime campaign, or next Valentine's... That would work out better for her...

"Wonderful," one of the higher-ups said. "Now, if we could get a final round of QC testing done, we should be ready to launch."

"I want to help with that," Carly spoke up. 

She remembered the first time she'd made that announcement, the wave of surprise and amusement that had spread around the table, all her bigger co-workers practically bursting to laugh to one another about what she was offering to do, yet not daring to do it in front of her, lest they tip her off. 

It was pretty messed up; it was difficult to come up with a justification for herself, beyond that it would make them trust her more. And it did get her a bonus, too, which was certainly nice. Going through the list of candidates, choosing them, inviting them - knowing her voice, as a little, would make this seem safer than it was, more innocent - welcoming them into the building... It all made her feel icky, especially when, every time, the people who ran the tests would send her back to her desk, not let her watch past the first few minutes, mostly just the introductions.

"You have important work to do," they'd tell her. "We'll see them out."

She'd never seen any of them actually leave, and she had her doubts that it was a coincidence when the woman who ran the adoption agency a few blocks away happened to be visiting their building every time. She always resolved not to do it again, and she'd thought, last time, she was going to stick to it...

Since then, however, she'd had someone new, Daphne, move into her apartment building, right across the hall. She'd looked so cool, so independent... Carly had been too intimidated to approach her for a long time, and then, one day, she'd heard a knock on her door, and climbed up onto her step-stool to peer out the peephole and discover that it was her.

Daphne had barely bothered to introduce herself, basically pushing her way into Carly's apartment as soon as she opened the door a crack. "I hear you work for Good Old-Fashioned Toys," she'd sniffed. "Haven't you heard the rumors about them?"

She was the kind of person who would watch all of those Amazon-focused shows to see if there were different commercials running then, who would post about them, try to spread the word... Carly had assumed those were mostly dorkier sorts, so she never would have expected it from someone like Daphne, but here she was.

"I-I don't know about any of that," Carly had shrugged. "I just work there."

"Oh, please," Daphne had rolled her eyes. "You never saw anything strange?"

Carly had wanted to help her, of course. That was what anyone in her position should do... If they messed up, though, she wouldn't only lose her job, the company would almost certainly ensure she wasn't able to spill their secrets... "I-I don't know about that," she'd said hesitantly. "Every office is strange in some way, right?"

And she'd kept probing Carly about it whenever she saw her, telling her to investigate, to dig deeper, find her some evidence she could use... It was starting to become a nuisance, to bring Carly to the brink of having to make a choice. She could do what she'd told herself she would long ago, and have Daphne help her unmask the company... Or she could put it off a little longer by taking care of her problem another way.

"Hey, Daphne," she knocked on her door that evening, after getting home from work. "I have a proposal for you... A way for you to get inside the building and check things out for yourself... All you have to do is try out a toy or two first..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I really appreciate this," Daphne told Carly with a grin as they waited in the lobby for the rest of the testers to arrive. "I was starting to wonder about you, to be honest..."

"Shh," Carly warned. "This isn't the place to talk about... this."

Daphne smiled, winked. "Right, of course."

Carly could give her a head's up, tell her to get out of there... Somewhere down the road, she could be very useful in helping Carly with her end goal, but it was too soon. She wasn't ready yet, and Daphne was too pushy... It wasn't going to work out with her across the hall.

So, despite the pang of guilt as she said goodbye to the testing group, giving her neighbor a stealthy wave right before she stepped out of the room, closing the door behind herself, she knew it was for the best. A part of her even wanted to watch it happen, to stay there, on the other side of the two-way mirror and see the whole thing play out. She did let herself be shooed away ultimately, however, returning to her desk with a huge weight off her shoulders. Now, she could put off her betrayal a bit longer, earn some more cash first - starting with the bonus she'd get for today - and wasn't that a form of rebellion, too? Leeching off of her company, even though, to be fair, she was giving them their money's worth.

The test, she had to assume, went well. She didn't hear anything about the company feeling the need to change course, and she no longer ran into Daphne in the halls of her apartment building, or at all. 

And then, on Valentine's Day, she heard a knock on her door, and opened it to find a box waiting for her, the tag letting her know it was from her 'Secret Admirer.' She couldn't resist, obviously... There were a few cute guys in the building, any one of which she'd be thrilled to get presents from, and take things further, if at all possible, although when she looked up and down the hall, she didn't see any trace of anyone to give her a hint of which one it might have been.

She took the box into her apartment and tore off the shiny wrapping paper, with its pink and red hearts, going to fetch a knife from her kitchen to slice through the tape sealing the box closed, opening up the flaps and releasing a plume of pink mist, straight into her lungs, smelling strongly of strawberry and vanilla, the exact scent she'd suggested...

"Oh, no," she gasped, mind growing immediately foggy, even before the mist cleared enough for her to see into the box, to spot the pink teddy bear sitting there, packaged up so cutely, surrounded by little heart-shaped chocolates. The whole bottom of the package was hidden, the plastic darker, harder to see through.

The top of the packaging, however, had been sliced open, which was what had let the mist out. It was meant to remain shut until the recipient opened it up and gave the bear's paw a squeeze, as the tag on it suggested - which would be irresistible, as cuddly as she'd help design it to be - when it would start dispensing the sweet smelling mist.

"No, get away from me!" she squealed, stumbling backwards, trying to fan the stuff out of her nose, even as her big girl thoughts became more and more distant and hard to focus on. All she really wanted to do was get her bear out, give him a proper hug, but to do that, she'd have to detach him from the packaging, and that meant opening up the lower part of the package to unwind the wires holding him in place.

She dumped out her candy onto the floor and, against her better judgement, fumbled with the plastic, trying to undo it, to get her new toy out... Only to discover, hidden underneath, a pacifier, a diaper and a diaper cover, the latter red velvet, covered in lace and bows... She whimpered, shaking her head, knowing she didn't need diapers, that she wasn't a baby... But it was so cute, like her bear, and she suddenly, for some reason, wanted to be like her bear... To let herself be adorable and cuddly, and compliant... A toy herself, in a way, a sweet little Valentine.

The diaper was so big, and bulky, and crinkly, and she didn't like them at first, though already, it was too late to do anything about it, since the tapes were little-proof. All she could do, really, was pull the cover up over it to hide it, and slip her paci into her mouth to start to suck, the action quickly reminding her of how hungry she was, of how much she liked chocolate... And she had some, scattered all around her...

She knew she shouldn't eat it, that she would definitely regret it, but she couldn't imagine why, what chocolate could possibly do to her when it was so yummy, and, in a matter of minutes, she'd popped several pieces into her mouth. She could still think clearly enough by the time her tummy began to hurt to make the connection, to know why this was happening, yet not enough to resist, to keep herself from raising her padded bottom in the air and starting to push, feeling a tingling between her legs as her diaper began to fill with a warm, stinky mush. Everything was all working together to make her mess her pants... And to help her realize how good it felt, how much she loved it, and wanted to keep doing it for whoever was kind enough to look after her, and change her...

And she had helped design it that way, to make it work. As she sat up, grabbing her bear for comfort instinctively, squeezing it, sending a fresh spray of mist into her face, she was cognizant that this was her fault, to some degree, even if, by then, she didn't particularly care.

"Well, well, well," Daphne said when she walked in a little later, Carly staring up at her from behind her paci. "Look what we have here... Thank you so much for the invitation, Carly, but I got a glimpse of what they were testing, and then refused to sign their NDAs, so they let me leave. I thought you might enjoy trying it out yourself, though, since the company you're so proud to work for made it. How do you like it?"

Carly blinked, not quite able to follow all that, the main thing in her mind as she looked up at Daphne, "Mommy?"

Daphne chuckled. "Yeah, sure, I guess I have to be now, huh? And you are going to help Mommy out, by showing everyone what these toys really do, aren't you?"

Of course she was... She always wanted to do what her Mommy said... And, in some distant, foggy part of her mind, she knew that had been her goal, too, at some point... She may have lost sight of it a bit, and was going about it a different way, but she found it hard to be too worried about all that now. If her Mommy was happy, she was happy.

"But first, I bet we're going to have to find someone to help change you out of that diaper, huh, stinky?" Daphne shook her head. "Well, I don't think we'll have much trouble, as cute as you look... Come on, let's go for a little walk."

"Okay, Mommy!" Carly grinned and stumbled to her feet, toddling contentedly after her Mommy, clinging to her teddy bear and nursing her paci like it was all second nature, already hopelessly under the toy's spell, like so many other littles who had been given the bear for Valentine's Day, or bought it for themselves because they thought it was cute. Perhaps, with her no longer suitable to work there, to give pointers, the company wouldn't be able to replicate its success as well next time... Or maybe there would be another little who would get hired on there, who would do their best to help out just enough to keep their job until, one day, they were able to strike back... And maybe they'd keep their adulthood, and their continence, long enough to actually do so, unlike her.