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Tina trudged forward though sizzling nothingness. There was no way to guess how much time was passing. The gray haze of static began to slowly clear, leaving Tina in a hallway of soft-focus gray squares. The textures steadily resolved from shapeless, sizzling grayness into the smooth sheen of polished glass. Tina didn't know how long she had been marching forward through this shapeless void, with the sound of static filling the air around her like the hum of insect wings. She felt lost, but at least the gradual change of scenery suggested she was getting somewhere, even if she had no clue as to what might be ahead. All she could focus on was putting one foot in front of the other.

The hallway was growing more clear and distinct as she continued forward. Gradually, she became aware that the glass surfaces were in fact television screens. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all composed of screens, all showing the shimmering black and white of an empty channel. Tina had hoped that this strange corridor could take her further from the Sponsor's area of influence, but it was looking more and more like she was drawing close to something else, perhaps even the center of their power. Was that better, or worse? The idea of turning back seemed like a non-starter. Even if she could get back, there was nowhere to go. Back there was Miko and the comfy prison the Sponsors had built around her, and now that she had managed to slip away once, she doubted her captors would give her the same chance a second time. It was either keep going, or give up and accept an existence as a helpless, diaper-filling idiot. She kept going.

One of the blank screens suddenly came to life with a pop. It showed a grayed-out woman in a fashionable gray dress walking down a gray sidewalk near a gray park in white platform heels, a pained expression marring her gray features. As soon as Tina's eyes locked on the screen, she heard a smooth, calm voice in her head.

“Have you ever noticed how tough it can be to walk around in hard, uncomfortable shoes? You've probably tried all sorts of expensive inserts, but what if I told you there was alternative?

Tina was suddenly confronted by a searing flash of white light, follows by the equally unpleasant glare of extremely bright colors in the midst of the grayness. The woman was now on all fours in a banana-yellow footed sleeper, joyously crawling through vibrantly green grass dotted with violets and daffodils.

“Introducing 'Crawling', the exciting new way to get around! With just...”

Tina tore her eyes from the screen, and the intrusive voice died in her ears. She breathed heavily, realizing how narrow her escape had just been. The image had excited and comforted her. It had made her feel good for a moment in the midst of all her tiredness and confusion. She had to keep moving, or she risked falling under the Sponsors' insidious spell. Her legs wobbled slightly. As she progressed, the screens around her began to come to life, one by one. The colors were so wonderfully vibrant that they were simply impossible to ignore. Despite all her caution, Tina's eyes were drawn to a shower of shiny, multi-colored  square capsules tumbling  through space, right into the waiting mouth of a woman with a dreamy expression on her face. They looked vaguely familiar, but it wasn't until the voice-over trickled in her mind that Tina recognized what she was seeing.

“Tide Pods...so shiny...so colorful...so irresistible...and now, there's no need to resist. Now with orange sherbet, blue raspberry, and coconut cream flavored gel packs, these Tide Pods are 100% edible, 100% delicious, and they still get your clothes looking bright and smelling fresh! Indulge yourself in their rich, sweet taste every time you load the washing machine. Succulent. Satisfying. Clean. Fresh. Laundry Detergent...Mmmmm. Yummy.”

Tina gagged and shook her head, trying to clear the weird craving for the candy-like cleaning product she was suddenly feeling. She forced herself to keep walking, but the images were everywhere, and no matter how much she insisted to herself that she mustn't, there was simply no way not to look. Her eyes shot up to the ceiling. She didn't want to, but what was she supposed to do when the screen was showing a closeup of a woman smearing a viscous white substance all over her naked rump? Tina couldn't decide what was more disturbing: the fact that the woman's butt was clearly inflating like a balloon as she rubbed the mysterious goo all over it, or the calm, breathy sensuality of the voice-over.

“Introducing Badunkadunk Lotion, the only skin cream specially formulated to moisturize, protect, and gently expand a woman's posterior. Each application keeps your keister silky-smooth and healthy for up to twelve hours, and can add as much as five pounds or more of fatty tissue to each of your buttocks. Apply twice a day for only two weeks, and watch your ass-cheeks slowly swell into blubbery beach-balls. Your precious tushie will be safe from rashes and irritation, and you'll finally be able to enjoy the pleasure and comfort that only a truly enormous booty can provide.”

“Gaaaaah!” snarled Tina. She wrenched her head downward, trying to ignore how small and dry her pull-up-covered butt suddenly felt. She began to run again, more carefully this time. She tried staring straight ahead, down the barrel of the seemingly endless hallway.

“Uuugghhh-huh! Uuuuuugghh...”

Somewhere up ahead, someone was groaning with effort. A slight scraping noise accompanied the sound, as though two pieces of metal were sliding against one another. Tina charged forward, hoping to finally find a real person in the midst of all these meaningless, distracting images. But as she grew closer, she saw that the sounds were only coming from another commercial, and once her eyes had fallen on the screen, the idea of looking away again was simply gone.

The screen was showing a throng of figures, all dressed in cheerful, bright colors. As she got closer, Tina saw that they were standing in a gym. All around were weight-lifting benches, racks of weights, treadmills, and other assorted exercise equipment, none of which were currently in use. The crowd of women were all dressed in sheer singlets, each in a primary color. The camera angle was low, so that there was no doubt what aspect of their anatomy was being highlighted.

They were gathered around a single bench, on which a woman in a light purple yoga outfit was struggling to raise a barbell. The camera swooped forward through the crowd of onlookers to focus on the woman's face. She was visibly sweating, and her teeth were bared in a groan of exertion. Tina noticed a slightly chipped tooth, which meant she had to be a real person, and one not yet fully under control. The woman's arms were very toned, and a well-developed set of six-pack abs was visible on her bare midriff. It was clear that she did this kind of thing a lot, which is what made the scene so surreal.

The bar she was straining herself to lift had no weights on it at all. Instead, two large pink balloons were waving gently from the two ends. They couldn't be lifting the thing to any serious degree, of course, but they were obviously there to make a point. Despite her impressive physique, this woman was struggling valiantly to lift a bar that could weigh perhaps ten pounds at the most. On the left side of the bench, a busty woman dressed as a cheerleader in colors that matched the struggling athlete's workout clothes was shaking her pom-poms and shouting encouragement.

“You can do it! You're the best! You've...Got...The...Power! Wooooh!”

On the right, another woman in a white lab coat was holding a pen to a clipboard and watching the struggle in pensive silence. Her face was stern, and utterly flawless. Tina identified both the cheerleader and the alleged scientist as more of the Sponsors' minions.

It was clear that the muscular woman was giving the task all she had. Her forehead shone with sweat, and her nostrils flared. She groaned. The bar raised another inch. It shook violently. The balloons wavered in the air. Then, the muscular arms finally gave out, and the bar came to rest on the woman's breasts. The woman dressed as a scientist immediately jumped forward to grab the bar and return it to the rack, quickly and with one hand.

A musical fanfare swelled up from nowhere. Colorful balloons and confetti dropped down from the ceiling. The cheerleader blew a kazoo.

“Congratulations, Kendra! You win!” announced the scientist. Kendra looked too dazed and exhausted to parse the logic of this statement. “Wha...but I, couldn't...lift it?”

“Nope!” concurred the cheerleader with a beaming smile. “You tried as hard as you could, but you couldn't even lift an empty barbell! You're a total weakling now, Kendra! Well done!”

The scientist pulled out a large chart from no discernible location. It showed a series of dates on the x-axis, with Kendra's best bench-press of the day on the y. The red line clearly showed her record gradually approaching 400 lbs., then suddenly plummeting in the last few weeks. “That's right! You are now officially the weakest member of this entire gym! Let's give Kendra a big hand!”

The audience broke out into wild applause. The cheerleader took Kendra by the shoulders and helped her to sit up. She raised her arm and pinned a huge purple ribbon to her shirt, while a large banner unfurled on the wall behind. Both banner and ribbon proudly displayed the words: Weakest Ever!

Kendra looked down at her new award with an unfocused expression. “But...no, this isn't...this can't be right! I'm strong! I've always been strong! I'm sure of it! What is happening?”

The crowd of women cooed in unison. The cheerleader put on a sympathetic expression and wrapped her arms around Kendra, allowing her head to rest on her large breast.

“No. No, baby! You're a weakling now! A wimpy little wuss! You're gonna love being all soft and powerless, Kendra! Just think of all the things a little wimp like you can do that a big toughy-pants can't!”

Kendra began to sob. “Liiiike whaaaahathat?! I...I can't live like thiiiiis!”

The audience cooed again. The cheerleader began patting her on the back“Shhhhh. It's okay baby. Everything is fine. Look at you! You're crying! You never used to do that! Doesn't it feel good to just let it all out? Let your emotions run wild? Oh, it'll happen all the time now that you're a cute little wimpy-pants! You'll feel that little bottom lip of yours start to quiver, and from there it won't be long before your little waterworks kick in! Everyone will just think you're the cutest, and they'll hug you and comfort you, just like I'm doing right now! Now, isn't being an adorable little crybaby way better than picking up some stupid heavy thing?”

Kendra was not convinced. She only sobbed harder. “Nooo! I don wanna be adowable! No wanna be a cwybaaaabyyyy! Waaaaahaha!”

“I think another dose of your special sports drink is in order.” said the scientist, shaking her head solemnly and producing a large baby bottle. It looked like it was full of Pepto-Bismol, but the label on the side clearly said “Weaksauce” in bold lettering. “Open up, honey. Theeere we go. No, you can't resist, silly. Much too weak.” Kendra had her hands around the scientist's wrists, but it was clear that her struggles were accomplishing nothing. She tried to move her mouth out of the way, but the cheerleader held her head in place. Soon she was drawing in the viscous pink stuff, and her demeanor gradually grew calmer.

“There you are. No more struggling, baby.” cooed the cheerleader in a soft whisper. “Now, are you gonna show us how weak that little bladder of your is now? Huh? Is somebody gonna be a little tinklepants girl? C'mon, you'll look sooo cute in your little crybaby diapees, and you'll feel so safe and secure.”

Gradually, Kendra's expression became calmer, the bottle of pink stuff began to empty, and a large dark patch began to spread through her purple yoga pants. Soon, they were being yanked down, along with her lacy thong. The cheerleader slid her thick new diaper beneath her, gently wiped and powdered her crotch, and drew the tapes tight. The front panel of the diaper showed a disembodied mouth wide open in a silent whine, two half-circle cartoon eyes with arcs of blue droplets shooting outward, and the words “Little Crybaby” were written across the top in puffy blue letters.

The empty bottle was withdrawn. Kendra looked down at her new underwear with a look of dazed confusion.

“But, I...nooo.” she whispered. Her voice was so weak.

“Shh, it's okay, baby.” cooed the cheerleader. “Just admit it. It'll feel so good to just say it. What are you now?”

“I'm...a crybaby?” As the words left her mouth, Kendra's eyes suddenly shot wide. Her eyes rolled back in her head. “Ahhh-ahhhh!”

“Very good. Are you strong, baby? Be honest now.” encouraged the cheerleader.

Kendra writhed in ecstasy, grinding herself against the padded surface of the bench. “I'm...weak! Oooooooh-gawd! Sooo weak!Weeeeeeee-heeeheeek! Oh fuck, definitely not strong! Nope! Not strong at aaaaaha-hall! I'm a pissy-pants little weakling! Oooh-yes! A fucking kitten is straw...iss strawww-stronger than meee! Fuuuck! Imma widdle wimpy-pants cwybaby! Yesssss!”

The assembled women gathered, around cheering and applauding as she shook with uncontrollable pleasure.

This Message Is Brought To You By...Our Sponsors.

Tina realized with a start just how long she had just spent staring at the screen, lost in the drama. She slapped herself on the cheek to try to regain her focus. She could not afford to stand dumbfounded in front of these ads if she wanted to get out of here with her free will intact. Tina waved her fingers in front of her eyes and ran down the corridor, trying to cover as much ground as she possibly could. She was doing well until she slipped on the glassy floor and went down on one knee. She managed to jump back to her feet, but not before her eyes fixed on the screen underneath her. The sounds crowded into her mind, and she was lost in the comforting colors and shapes once again.

As the scene opened, the camera slowly panned in on a rather unconvincingly clean and neat living room. Two women were on the couch, chatting away with smiles on their faces, gesturing a bit more than would be typical for non-Italians. A diaper bag decorated with applique squirrels rested between them. Tina glanced between them, playing the now-familiar game of spot-the-fake. Both women were gorgeous, but the one on the right had the brighter smile and the neater hair. The music slowly faded out to allow the dialogue to be heard.

“Alright, she should be in her crib until six. Go ahead and feed her when she wakes up, and then set her down in the playpen for cartoons until bedtime.” said the woman on the left. She had bright red hair, and was wearing a little black dress with a sparkling gold chain at the neck, and her lipstick was selected to match her hair. Tina guessed that this was commercial shorthand for a woman about to go on a date. The other woman had her shiny black hair in a tight bun and wore a faded pair of jeans. A light pink sweater accentuated her generous curves. Tina guessed that she was playing the role of the babysitter in this little farce.

“She'll most likely need a change by then, as well.” An unseen audience apparently found this statement hilarious, if the canned laughter that followed was anything to go by.

“Okay! No problem!” She said, much too loudly and too quickly. It was fake-fake confidence, so overdone as to constitute a double bluff. The two women looked at each other, then seemed to suffer from a bout of inappropriate laughter at the babysitter's obvious nerves. The sitcom-esque laugh track played over them. Tina huffed.

“Sorry. I guess I'm a little nervous! I've never babysat a full-grown woman before. What am I supposed to do if she doesn't listen to me? I am younger than her, after all.” said the babysitter.

Her companion settled a reassuring hand on her knee. “You'll do fine! She's no trouble at all, I promise. Ooh, here she comes now!”

Behind them, a third woman descended the stairs. She had red hair to match the woman on the left, only hers was tied into two big pigtails. She was dressed in a sky-blue set of pajamas. She dragged a white fleece blankie on the stairs behind her, and white plastic leak guards were easily visible above the waistband of her sweat-pants. The laugh track played again as she waddled into view, although she definitely wasn't laughing. Her face was set in a scowl of frustration.

“Now Mom, you know you're not supposed to be up yet.” admonished the woman in the little black dress, rising from the couch and putting her hands on her hips.

“I'm sick of this, Ashley!” complained the older woman, who was evidently her mother. “It's ridiculous! I'm a grown woman, and I am your mother! It's not acceptable to keep treating me like a goddamned infant!” The unseen audience rolled with laughter. Tina frowned.

The woman in the black dress (or Ashley, if that was even her real name) chuckled good-naturedly, as though her mother had said something extremely precious. “Uh-oh, somebody's being a little cranky-britches again, isn't she? Did you make more stinkies in your pants? Is that why you're in such a sour mood? C'mon, let me see, Mom.” With two manicured fingers, she pulled open her mother's pajamas to check her diaper.

“Stop it! I'm not a baby! This is all wrong!” the mother protested, although she made no move to prevent her daughter's intrusion into her pants. More laughter played.

“Stop laughing at me!” she shouted at the ceiling. It was almost a sob.

“All clean! For now anyway! Come on Mom, let's get you back in your crib. Your new babysitter will come and get you when it's time for your din-dins, okaaay?” She was real, Tina decided. Under the Sponsors' power like Miko had been, but real.

“Babysitter? You're insane! I don't need a goddamn babysitter!” whined the diapered mother, as her daughter took her by the arm and began leading her back toward the stairs. It was clear that she had no power to resist being moved around like a piece of furniture. “I can take care of myself! I'm supposed to have a job, not a naptime!” More laughter. Whoever was running this show evidently found the idea of this middle-aged woman running her own life utterly absurd.

Ashley spun her around again and held her by the chin as she spoke. Her voice was suddenly very serious, although still perfectly calm. “Mother, we've been over this. Your job now is to sleep in your crib, watch your cartoons, and make nice big messes in your diapers for me to change. That's all. Now, if you keep ignoring my rules, I might just invite Mrs. Spanks to pay a short visit to Bum-bum Town. We don't want that, do we?” she gave her mother's generously-padded seat a playful slap to emphasize the point.

The older woman's mouth curled downward in her daugher's hand. She stomped a foot on the rug, a little musical sting emphasizing the futility of the gesture. “It's not fair!” she muttered.

Ashley turned back to the babysitter, smiling broadly. “See? She keeps complaining and whining about the situation, but have you noticed that she doesn't actually seem to be doing anything proactive to deal with it? I mean, in theory, she could run out of the house, or push me away, or even just throw away her silly blankie and rip off her diapers, but somehow, she just doesn't. I can drag her all over the house, tickle her, give her naughty butt a spanking, and all she can do is have a little moan about how unfair it all is! She's really a cinch to look after!” A montage played as Ashley spoke, showing her handling her mother like a helpless doll, all while she crossed her arms and scowled impotently. The babysitter was visibly impressed.

“Wow! That is sooo cool! How do you do that? My Mom would tan my hide if I treated her like that!” This creature had no actual mother, Tina knew. She was nothing more than a three-dimensional stage prop.

“Oh, I have my ways!” laughed the daughter with a careless throw-away gesture. She pressed a hand to one cheek and stage-whispered. “Here, since you're new to the babysitting game, I'll go ahead and let you in on a little secret.” She paused for dramatic emphasis as the camera panned in on her face. “Pouty Baby Pacifiers!” The music swelled as she opened a pouch on the side of the diaper bag and withdrew the star of the show. The pacifier was easily six or seven times larger than a standard baby's pacifier. The shield was bright blue and about four inches across, while the bulb was about the same size as a 40-watt light bulb. A gleam ran seductively across it as the camera lovingly zeroed in to display it. The woman turned and gently pressed it to her mother's lips. Despite the look of shame and indignation on her face, the older woman's mouth opened easily to receive it. The shield covered most of the lower half of her face, and the ring bobbed back and forth as she unhappily sucked. “I just love Pouty Baby Pacifiers, and whether she admits it or not, I know my Mom does too! I just put this in her mouth whenever I get tired of her little complaints, and I know she's just going to suck and suck for as long as I decide!”

She playfully grabbed her mother's nose and wiggled it back and forth. The diapered woman clenched her fists and shook them at her sides with anger, but made no other sign of protest to this demeaning treatment.

“See? Pouty Baby's special scientific formula helps dampen the neural impulses that create actions and motivation!

A simplistic diagram filled the screen, showing the over-sized pacifier shooting little blue lightning bolts into the poor woman's brain, zapping and annihilating the little red squiggles that presumably represented her will to assert her independence and personal autonomy. Tina thought it would be exactly as scientific to show the pacifier releasing little gremlins to mine her brains with magical pickaxes to extract the coveted Dignity Rubies.

“Even when it isn't in her mouth, it's still helping to keep her perfectly passive and docile! She might not always be happy with the decisions I make for her now that I'm in charge, but thanks to Pouty Baby Pacifiers, I know that she'll never have the gumption to actually do anything about it! Just a few hours of sucking, and she'll be totally unmotivated to resist being babied all day long! No more silly resistance means more time to myself!” She glanced down at her her bare, unadorned wrist dramatically. “Oh, speaking of which, I'd better get moving if I don't want to be late. Can you be a dear and put my Mom back in her crib?”

“Uh...sure!” The phony babysitter approached the pacified mother with caution. The scowl intensified, and her sucking picked up speed. The babysitter winced and paused, as though approaching a dangerous animal.

“Go right ahead. She won't bite.” encouraged the daughter. The babysitter stepped closer.

“Give her a little pat on the head. It'll help her get used the idea that you're in charge of her.”

The babysitter slowly reached up and patted between the red pigtails. The older woman rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“Now her rear. She needs to accept that you're in charge of her big, silly diapee butt while I'm away.”

The babysitter did as instructed, patting the mother's bulging rear with a placating smile. The woman winced, seemed to struggle inwardly for a moment, then her shoulders sagged in reluctant acceptance.

Ashley turned and smiled at the camera, wholly undermining the supposed hurry she was supposed to be in. “See? You two will get along great, I'm sure of it! It might take my Mom a while to accept her new place in the household, but at least I can go out for a night on the town without worrying about her. Between you and Pouty Baby Pacifiers, I know my Mom's butt is in very good hands!”

This Message Is Brought To You By...Our Sponsors.

Tina turned away room the screen in disgust. The sounds of canned laughter died away. She forced her eyes closed. Even if she had to feel her way along the corridor like a blind woman, she couldn't withstand these inane messages forever. Using the left-hand wall as a guide, she slowly began to pick her way forward.

She refused to open her eyes for any reason. She focused on her breathing. No matter how scary it was to move through this bizarre, unknown environment without being able to see, it was better than subjecting her mind to more of the Sponsors' brainwashing hogwash. Glass screen followed glass screen, over and over. It felt like she was crossing miles of smooth, featureless glass, separated only by the thinnest of partitions. A hundred times, she wanted to peek, just to see if anything was waiting for her ahead. But she bit her lip and persevered. Who knew how much of this she could take?

After what felt like hours, she came to a corner. Patting the walls, she worked her way along the new wall, until she came to another right-angle turn, back the way she had come. After patting the walls and ceiling cautiously, she reluctantly accepted that she had reached a dead end. A single large screen was standing in the way. The only possible way to find a way forward now...would be to look. At least this was the screen at the very end of the corridor. Whatever was on it, had to special in some way, right? She hadn't gotten this far for nothing, surely? She opened her eyes and looked fixedly at the screen.