Story #160: Unflattering Reflections (Part 2)

Story #160: Unflattering Reflections (Part 2) (A sequel to Story #60 'Unflattering Reflections') (Can be Found Here: https://babytobias.fanbox.cc/posts/6844147 ) (Content Tags: Messy diapers, surreal horror, brain drain, shifting perceptions, first person perspective, ongoing storyline) What is vanity? Is it lingering too long in front of the mirror because you like what you see? Or maybe it's an insecure obsession with the way that others perceive you. Feeling so afraid that you may be deigned undesirable; worries that humiliation, that blows to your ego, could wound you just as much as a dagger. I'd walked into that mirror maze with doubts in my heart, and I'd been forced to confront my greatest fears. The person we see in the mirror isn't always us; not the 'right' us, anyway. Completely surrounded by reflections, but not a one had truly belonged to me. Perhaps there was a small passing resemblance, but I disavowed any notion that I should have anything in common with the diapered dunce that I'd been surrounded by. He was a chubby, slobbering nimrod that gleefully pooped in his pants and ate his own boogers. That other boy in the mirror was the furthest thing possible from me. But I'd walked out of that mirror maze different than when I'd walked in. More than just the heavy diaper around my waist or the syrupy sluggishness that my thoughts had. It was impossible to know exactly what was different, but I could feel it. I could sense it. My first ideation had been centered around sweets; even after the trauma of my encounter, my immediate concern was cotton candy. I knew that I'd already had some earlier in the night, but that felt like it'd been a different me. Stumbling out of the mirror maze, my friends had been waiting for me. They ribbed me about taking too long, but I wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying. Instead, I just made my case for getting more treats. The other boys gave me a puzzled look over it, and it made sense why; the depths of my narcissism over my appearance meant that 'seconds' were a cardinal sin. Nevertheless, my friends shrugged off my odd behavior and we headed back to the stand with the cotton candy. The warm paste in the back of my diaper smeared further with each step, and the swollen crotch of the garment chafed against my thin thighs. The carnival was loud, so the the sounds of my crinkling and squelching were concealed. The odor must have been hidden too, from all the various smells of the outdoor venue. Surely they noticed my widened gait though, or that my pants were notably bulky? If they did, they didn't say anything about it. The rest of the boys were acting completely normal, while I was literally walking around with a sack of poop under my pants. The smell of the cotton candy as I got a stick of it was divine. Staring at the pink treat, I felt myself begin to drool in anticipation. It'd meant almost nothing to me when I'd had it earlier, but now it seemed so amazing. I could swear that it tasted a thousand times better this time too, like I could only now appreciate it. "Oh, we should go on *that* one next." One of my friends pointed to a bungee ride, where the rider was to sit in a seat that got bounced high up in the air. "Yeah! Why don't you two go save us a spot in line; I need to take a whizz first, and Jeremy can keep me company." The carnival was a fun place to be, but the importance of the buddy system had been deeply ingrained into us by our parents. With so much going on, it was a place where a kid could easily go missing, or get picked on by older kids. I finished my cotton candy while en route to the nearest set of bathrooms. There was a certain irony to going in there when my pants were full of hot dump, but that was lost on me. I couldn't even fully acknowledge the strangeness of my current situation, let alone think too hard about why my underpants had been transformed. It was weird, and I knew it was weird, but it was also not alarming. Comedically, it was alarming in how not alarming it was. The alarms should have all been going off, but it was as if they were muted. Corbin walked over to the urinals and I stuck by the sink. If I need to go, then I would, so there was no reason to try to force it. While I stood by the faucet, my eyes drifted to the dingy mirror right above it. It was the other me again. "Why yoo in here? Getting a diapee change?" Like earlier, this vile boy was without pants to call his own. His massive diaper bulged and drooped, stained both yellow and brown from repeated use. It looked so horrendous that I swear I could smell it through the mirror. "I-I no...I'm with a friend..." The boy suddenly started to grunt and fart; his already loaded diaper distended further with a cacophony of wet plopping. With boogers once again dangling from his nostrils, he looked more intently at me and nodded his empty little head. "Uh-huh, me too." Corbin was suddenly standing next to me, so he could wash his hands, and I saw that his own reflection didn't look quite right. His mirrored image wasn't like mine though; his was quite flattering, like he was far more handsome and respectable looking than he actually was. My fear emotional response was fear, followed by shame. My irrational vanity was overriding any logical response to this; I was more afraid of Corbin seeing my disgusting doppelganger, due to petty embarrassment, than I was concerned about getting to the bottom of this. The point appeared moot anyway. He was just focused on washing his hands, while I watched our alternate selves have a very different scene in the carnival boy's room. Mirror Corbin was groping the back of my doppelganger's diaper. He was cooing and pulling back the waistband, talking about what 'big poopies' Jer-Bear made. The other me was giggling bashfully and agreeing wholeheartedly, gushing about how he loved making pushies in his pants. It was revolting, but I couldn't look away. The mirrored Corbin pulled the drooling boy back to a changing table, and I had to stand and watch as not-me got his poopy diaper changed by a very doting Corbin. I'd kept watching, but then I'd felt a hand on the waistband of my pants. There was no leap to action to stop it, no visible shock about it. I could feel cool air brushing against the crook of my back, and I heard a playful tutting of the tongue. "That's a big stinker right there, Jeremy. We better take care of that before we go on any more rides! We don't want you to have a blowout, especially after all that cotton candy..." Admittedly, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Corbin would notice my diaper in these closer confines. The earthy aroma radiating off my backside must have been undeniable, when the open air of the carnival wasn't hiding it. Discovery was not what shocked me, it was the way my friend was handling this fact, as if it was expected. "C-Corbin, I...I don't know..." "How to use the potty. Trust me, I think I figured that out, dunderhead. That's why your mommy packed all these diapers for you." Corbin had a backpack all night, but it should have been full of carnival prizes or snacks. As he unzipped it and reached inside, I could see he also had diapers and changing supplies with him. How could that be? I looked in the mirror again and blanched as I saw the other boy getting his muddy butt wiped clean. Before I could argue any further, Corbin was pulling me by the hand and taking me toward the lone changing table. He couldn't really be about to change my diaper, could he? We might have been good friends, but that seemed way too far a step for the strength of our relationship. Beginning to squirm, I tried to wiggle out of his grasp. "Stop being so fussy. I know you don't want to get a change, but you're going to ruin your pants if we don't get you cleaned up. Don't worry, I'm sure you won't be clean for long..." "N-no! I don't need...You can't...This isn't...!" My frantic stammering was soundly ignored and Corbin suddenly gave a firm swat to the back of my pants with his open palm. "Stop. You need a change. You pooped in your pants." He found the strength to lift me up onto the changing table and he started to shake the legs of my pants to get them off me. As he did, my dirtied diaper was revealed inch by inch. Corbin scooted a fresh one underneath my lumpy bottom and then reached for the tapes. I closed my eyes, too embarrassed to watch what would happen next. "Dude, what are you doing? Is this supposed to be a dumb meme or something?" Cautiously, I opened back up my eyes and saw that my poopy diaper was gone. I was sitting on the changing table with my pants down, but the only thing around my waist was the pair of underoos that I'd originally come to the carnival in. Corbin didn't have power or wipes in his hands, and he just gave me this puzzled look, as if he hadn't been privy to anything that had just happened. My eyes darted toward the mirror and I saw that it was obscured by two grown men who were washing their hands and chatting. "I, uhhh...Yeah, just thought it would be funny." "That's mega cringe, dude. Nice baby undies, by the way. I think my little cousin has the same pair; skidmarks and everything." Corbin teased. Looking back down again and being more focused, I saw the goofy little cartoons on my briefs that I'd long outgrown. A fashion forward trailblazer like me had ditched printed underpants by the end of the second grade; where had they come from? And why did they have skidmarks? It was baffling, but no more so than the dirty diaper I'd been in only moments earlier. With a swift tug, I got my pants back on and hopped off the changing table. "Y-yeah, haha. It was, uh, laundry day...Let's get out of here." Right before we exited the bathroom, I caught the mirror out of the corner of my eye, and that chubby little Pamper-packer was smiling at me. Corbin didn't say anything about what happened in the bathroom. As far as I could tell, he hadn't experienced the same thing I had. To him, it must have appeared that I'd gotten on the changing table while he was at the urinal. My newfound underwear felt odd as we headed back toward the ride; it felt bulky, not to the degree of the diaper, but more than regular briefs should be. "Took you guys long enough!" One of the other boys complained when we got into line with them. "Sorry, Jeremy thought it'd be funny to play 'baby' in the bathroom." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Dude got up on the changing table, like, one of those Koala Kare ones. Got right on it and pretended his underwear was a diaper." The other boys laughed and looked to me for confirmation, "Wait, seriously? You trying to start a new trend, Jeremy?" I smiled nervously and gave a sheepish shrug. I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to be explaining, or where to begin. It was a futile effort when I didn't know anything myself. Something was obviously happening, but it was far beyond my comprehension and I wasn't even sure if any of it was real. These images that I'd seen in the mirror as of late. This other 'me' that almost appeared to want to assimilate me. The fact that I'd walked out of that mirror maze in a loaded diaper, and now that diaper was just mysteriously gone. The most tangible evidence I had was when I'd crapped my pants the other day, as that had been very real, but it proved nothing aside from my incompetence. My friends continued to talk amongst themselves as we waited in line, but I was just quiet and withdrawn into myself. It felt impossible to focus on having fun when I wasn't sure of my own perceptions. I watched them go up on the slingshot one by one. They would strap into the chair and it would be slung powerfully up into the air, before being bounced like a bungee cord. They had a blast, completely oblivious to my internal suffering, and then it was my turn. As I got strapped into the chair, the edges of my vision got fuzzy. Blinking to ruffle things out, my sight began to shift. Corbin looked different again, and it felt like my underwear was again puffing out in all directions to become something different. "Bet you a soda that he totally dooks himself." "Dude, Corbin just got finished wiping his butt. There's no way he'd crap himself again that soon." "Then take the bet! I'm just saying, you know what a wimp he is. His mom would be pissed if she found out we were taking him on this one." "That's why we're not gonna tell her, dummy. No way we're spending all night on the baby rides though." The other two boys looked different now too. Much like Corbin, they'd gotten a noticeable 'glow-up'. More handsome, more fashionable. I'd always been the obvious winner in those categories, and subconsciously, I'd probably avoided befriending anyone that looked better than me. The ride operator finished strapping me in and sighed, "Well, you just barely meet the size requirements. You ready, kid?" "Uhh...Y-yeah?" What else could I say? Reality felt changed, but I'd gotten in line to ride this ride, and that part hadn't been altered. The part about being barely big enough to ride was a little alarming though. I'd always been very wispy and lean, but I'd never been anything but average in height, right? I was about the same height as my friends, and they'd all exceeded the requirements handily. The seat shot up in the air and I was blasted by the wind in my ears. It was so sudden and powerful that I felt pressed down tight in the chair. I heard a scream and wondered where it came from, but then I realized it was coming from my own mouth. Was I afraid? I wasn't a daredevil, but no carnival ride had ever scared me. When I hit the first bounce in the chair, I realized that I'd pooped my pants. My butt was slammed into the putrid pile that I must have made when first ascending; it was warm and mushy and it smeared all over. Shame again evaded me, and instead I felt a sliver of comfort in the mucky cocoon around my nethers. Had I really just pooped myself? No, I was *still* pooping myself. Every bounce in the chair was working more steaming filth into my padded seat, like toothpaste out of the tube. It didn't feel like I could control it at all; control felt like a foreign concept to me. The chair came back down and I also realized that I'd been crying and sucking my thumb. Little whimpering noises snuck past the drooly thumb and the operator wrinkled his nose as he approached me. "Oof! I think we might have someone with some, uh, 'luggage in the trunk'. Been a while since I had someone do that on this ride..." "It's okay, he's still in diapers. He hauls luggage back there more often than not." Corbin quipped as he came over to get me. The other two boys discussed the outcome of their bet, with the loser stating they still needed concrete evidence, and that I sometimes just 'smelled like poop'. It was an affront to someone like me, who showered twice a day and had more fragrance products than most grown women. "Was it super scary, Jer-Bear? Did you do a big potty in your Pampers? A big stinky poopie?" Corbin tickled my chin and then grabbed me by the shoulders to direct me away from the chair I'd just soiled myself in. He seemed so much taller than he should have been... "N-no poopies...Din't make poo-poo!" That's not what I'd intended to say, but those were the first words to come out of my drooly lips since my thumb had blockaded my screams of terror. Corbin chuckled and gave me a pat on the butt, which only served to smear my pantload further. "Well, we better check, just to be sure. Freddy has to see if he gets his free soda, right?" If mirrors had been causing this, then why was it happening now? There weren't any mirrors out here! Though that didn't mean there weren't any reflections...