Daily Free-Write April 11, 2023: Super Larrio Brothers Diaper Show (Patreon)

Author's Note: So I just saw a certain video game themed movie Tuesday. Can you guess what it is? Well, I thought I'd just have some fun with this little story based loosely in that world. Again, using my customary off-brand naming scheme to avoid... issues. I've got quite a few fun stories started and many on hold so it looks like I'll have to do a poll, don't you think? Will this one be a winner? Let me know how you like it in the comments!

"It's-a me, Larrio! ...Ugh... I don't know... it doesn't sound natural, you know?"

"Come on, Larrio," said his brother, Weegie, "It's what the people want."

"Really? Our audience of five on public access?" He sighed. "Alright, alright. From the top. It's-a me! Larrio! And boy have we got a show for you today! Isn't that right, Weegie?"

"That's-a right, brother of mine! You'll never believe what King Poopa is up to today! He's really giving those mushroom people a run for their money! How will they ever get out of this one?"

"I don't know, Weegie," said Larrio. "Let's roll the cartoon and find out!"

"Great!" said Weegie, stopping the camera. "Now we just need to film the ending, cut in the royalty free cartoon, and bada-bing bada-boom, that's this week's episode!"

"Mushroom people?" muttered Larrio. "Seriously? Where do you find this stuff?"

"Hey, this is art. Personally curated by me! Our audience only expects the best."

"Yeah, our audience of five," said Larrio. "And one of them is our mother."

"Oh, you of little faith, brother. It takes time to build an audience. Now are we reado to finish?"

"I guess so..." Larrio looked around the 'set' which was really just his and Weegie's room, set up with some Papier-mâché props based on this silly cartoon that Weegie had found. It sure was a weird aesthetic. A lot of pipes, and blocky things, and a few cutouts of characters from the show. Turtles and... mushroom people. He wasn't very into it, but Weegie was passionate about it and he wasn't about to crush his sweet little brother's dreams. He was just going to be glad when this was over.

*****

"Come on Weegie, we're going to be late for our job interview! We didn't get our certificates at Plumb-It Trade School for nothing!"

"Alright, alright, Larrio! Hold our horses!" said Weegie, hurrying after his brother who was already rushing out the door of their apartment. He could barely keep up with his excitable brother on the best of days, and this was one of them. Larrio and him didn't have a working car, so they were going to have to hoof it, but luckily the job interview wasn't far. None of their prospective jobs were.

"Come on, bro! Through this construction zone!"

"C-construction zone? Isn't that dangerous?" asked Weegie.

"No time!" shouted Larrio, already pushing through the cyclone fence covering the empty lot by their house and rushing through. Weegie had no choice but to follow, but he was horrified by what he found. The yard was full of heavy equipment and precarious platforms.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

Weegie did his best to keep up with Larrio, ducking cranes, jumping over beams, and avoiding the angry construction workers who had taken notice of the interlopers. He ducked at the last minute to avoid being grabbed by one of them, and ran face first into a crane. Embarrassed, he quickly shook it off and kept going, finally joining Mario on the other side.

"Phew. That was a close one, Larrio. I'm sure glad we didn't WHoaaa!"

Ironically it wasn't the construction site that did him in but an open manhole cover in the middle of the street. The two brothers soon found themselves in a room full of pipes. Pipes that were quite large.

"They didn't teach us about this in trade school," muttered Larrio, looking around in awe.

"What'll we do now, Larrio?" asked Weegie, looking up at the tiny light of the manhole in the distant ceiling. "I don't think we're going to make it to our interview at this rate..." Mario, however, looked at the pipes with interest. He had an idea....

"Maybe not. Unless..." He looked into one of the pipes, wondering if they might lead to a shortcut. "Come with me..."

*****

"This is crazy Larrio, what makes you think this pipe will lead us anywhere?"

"Oh, I know it will lead us anywhere," said Larrio. Somehow, the pipe was big enough for them to easily walk through. Not only that, it was well lit and clean, almost as if they were still being maintained. "It's just like the speakeasy tunnels of old Chicago. This should lead us straight to where we wanna go. If i'm not mistaken, the exit should be right about... here!"

Sure enough, there was a bend in the big pipe. The only problem was, it forked into two paths.

"Hmm... I think we'd better split up." he told Weegie.

"S-split up? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Sure I'm sure. Five minutes. Meet me here in five minutes, and we'll see who went the right way.

"But Larrio..." Weegie didn't have a chance to finish his sentence, because Larrio was already off and running out of sight. He sighed and trudged down the other path.

*****

"Welcome to the mushroom kingdom!" said a small mushroom person, who greeted Larrio when he arrived out of the pipe.

"Mushroom kindgom? A mushroom person? Wait a sec... this is just like that show!"

"Show? Oh! You mean our broadcasts! Yes, we've been asking for help for so long. You must have seen it! That means it worked! Oh, you must be the answer to our prayers!"

"Uh, prayers? What? Hold on a sec, I thought this was just a TV show..." Larrio may have been confused, but the small mushroom person didn't seem to notice Larrio's uncertainty at all. Instead, he just kept going on about how Larrio was the hero they needed.

"You must meet the princess right away! And.. hey, wait a second... you're not wearing the right pants..."

"Pants? What pants?" asked Larrio, looking down and noticing for the first time the mushroom man's puffy white garment. It looked suspicious like a... like a... "A diaper?!"

Larrio's question hung in the air for a few seconds before the mushroom man pulled around his satchel and opened it up to pull out a spare white square of puffy material.

"No way! No way I'm wearing a... a diaper," said Larrio. The mushroom man just smiled and shook his head. "That's protocol. Everyone in the mushroom kingdom wears them! Even the princess! Now put it on, or do I have to do it for you?"

"Hold on, I gotta go back and get my brother," said Larrio, looking for any excuse to leave. "He's waiting for me in the pipes."

"The pipes?" asked the mushroom man, pausing.

"Yeah, the pipes. He took this path, I took the other..."

"Oh, no. Don't tell me... Do you know where that other way leads?" asked the mushroom man.

"No..." said Larrio slowly. "That's why we split up..."

"It leads straight to the dark world. Oh, this is not good."

"Hold on a sec," said Larrio, putting two and two together. "If that old TV show was real... then that can only mean one thing... King Poopa!" An Icy feeling of fear filled Larrio's chest.  "I've got to go back right away!"

"NO!" said the man. "It's too dangerous! We're sealing off the pipe until further notice. Now, you'd better get this on right away and we'll see the princess. I'm guarding that pipe for a reason, you know... luckily it's been long forgotten so perhaps your brother wasn't noticed yet. We can only hope..."

Larrio looked at the pipe with some trepidation as a few more mushroom men secured a pipe cap on top of it. Then he looked down as the mushroom man pressed the white square of plastic into his stomach. His new uniform. He hoped his brother was safe and well, and hopefully smart enough not to venture into the dark world.

*****

"Who's that intruding on my realm? Security! Zoom in on sector 3-9!"

"Yes, your Kingliness!" said the turtle minion, adjusting the camera view. A large spiky turtle king sat in the observation room, monitoring the latest development. He narrowed his eyes and sat forward with a crinkle as he saw the strange new man wandering out of the long forgotten pipe tunnel and into his territory.

"My goodness! Look at him! He's not even diapered! What sort of barbarian is that?"

"I don't know, sir," said the turtle.

"I wasn't asking you, idiot," said the king turtle, a large green behemoth with to wicked looking horns, a spiky shell, and a big gold crown. "Send a crew to... collect this intruder, and bring him here. Oh, and make sure you get a diaper on him. We may be vicious but we have rules of decorum, you know."

"Yes, your vileness! Right away!"

The great turtle king smiled as his minions triggered the alert system. He had been bored for such a long time, but now it looked like he just might have a bit of fun. He had a good feeling about this new visitor.