Midnight Tower - The Attitude Adjuster
Trying to write about new things. Not too far away from my normal stuff though.
Dennis sat in the corner of the giant nursery merrily stacking brightly colored blocks on top of one another. To his right a dark brown male beaver hastily removed differently shaped blocks from a massive grey tub, handing each to the goat. Directly across from Dennis sat a tawny lioness that would carefully align each block that the goat laid.
Entering his third month of VIP membership at Midnight tower Dennis had begun to make a real effort to get to know his siblings. Being the shy goat that he was he had spent most of his time playing with one of the older siblings, or with Charlie. Now; thanks to the growing familiarity of everyone and the encouraging words of his big sis' and bros he was ready to come out of his shell.
"Need more of the fat square blocks!" Dennis said.
"Coming right up!" the beaver replied as he stretched his body towards the container. His movement causing the thick white diaper he was wearing to crinkle loudly.
The sound of the beaver's diaper reminded Dennis and the lioness of the padding covering their own rumps. The lioness giggled softly while Dennis shifted in his seat, enjoying the sensation of the poofy diaper on his rear end. As the beaver returned to his normal sitting position he proudly held up two large square blocks colored a bright yellow.
Dennis quickly took the blocks and put them at the top of the stack. He leaned back and let the lioness move in to perfect the blocks positioning. While she briefly tinkered with the blocks Dennis sat back and admired their work. A bright multicolor replica of Midnight Tower!
Soon the lioness backed away from the tower of blocks, letting the goat know it was time to put on the finishing touches. "Two triangle blocks!" he said enthusiastically.
Immediately the beaver leaned over and grabbed two thick triangle blocks from the container. Once he handed them to Dennis; the goat wasted no time carefully placing them on the top. The three stood up together while the lioness briefly adjusted the last two triangles. Once she was satisfied she stepped back and gave the block tower a close inspection.
When she was satisfied she nodded at the two males. Wide grins spread across Dennis and the beaver's faces. After only a few seconds of admiring their work the goat spoke up. "I wanna show this to momma!"
The beaver began jumping up and down repeatedly saying "I'll go get her!" Without waiting for a response he ran off towards the nursery's double doors.
"Wow...He really wants to show the tower off to momma!" Dennis observed.
The lioness giggled briefly then spoke. "That's not the only reason he wanted to go see momma."
"Whaddya mean?" Dennis asked
"You didn't notice?" The lioness responded. "The stars on his diaper were fading away. While we were building the little beaver turned into a little pee-ver!"
Dennis and the lioness burst into laughter. Even though the pun wasn't very funny the goat couldn't help but let out deep belly laughs. Something about the tower and being with his new family filled Dennis with a happy giddiness that made him laugh at even the slightest provocation.
Unfortunately, not even the tower could be a happy place one hundred percent of the time, as Dennis was about to find out. His harsh lesson began when a raspy voice came from behind him. "HEY! BLOCK BABIES!"
Turning around Dennis was greeted by a grey rat wearing nothing but a silver hoodie and a plain white diaper.
The lioness's laughing stopped. Her joyous face quickly replaced by a half-scowl. "Oh... Hello Marty."
A sly grin came across the rat's face. "Come on now! We're brother and sister right? You should be a lot happier to see me. You don't want me telling on you cause' you hurt my feelings? Would you?"
Closing her eyes and letting out a long sigh the lioness asked. "Why are you out of the white room?"
"The white room? That's reserved for naughty cubs! As you know, I'm always on my best behavior." Marty said with a chuckle.
Before the lioness could speak Marty's gaze turned towards Dennis. "Oh? And who might you be? I haven't seen you around here before."
Dennis tilted his head at the rat. He thought he had met all of his siblings already, but this was his first time meeting Marty. Still, the goat wanted to have good relationships with all his new brothers and sisters. After only examining the rat for a few seconds Dennis walked forward ant introduced himself. "Hello there! I'm Dennis."
Marty walked towards the goat. "Heh... Well, it's always good to see new faces in the nursery! Put er' there!" As he spoke he extended an open paw towards the goat.
Though none of his other siblings had introduced themselves in this manner Dennis didn't see anything particularly wrong with it. He grabbed the rat's paw and the two shook. Quickly after Marty wrapped his free arm around the goat and pulled him in close.
The rat began walking forward with Dennis still wrapped in his arm. The goat had to awkwardly adjust his pace to keep from tripping as the two moved towards the block tower. "So, you made that tower right there?" Marty asked.
"Yeah! But it wasn't just me she helped..." Dennis was suddenly cut off by the lioness's voice. "Marty! Don't you dare!"
The rat turned his head to face the lioness and gave off an innocent, "what?"
"Whatever you're thinking about doing just cut it out!" The lioness said loudly, her voice becoming more and more indignant.
"I have no idea what you're talking about! I'm just trying to get to know my new brother! What's wrong with that?" Marty said as he flashed a wicked grin to the lioness.
The two walked closer to the block tower. Once they were parallel to the block tower Marty came to a halt. "Well, it's been nice getting to know you, Dennis!"
Dennis returned the comment with a slightly awkward. "It's been nice getting to know you too."
Marty turned his head slightly, locking eyes with the goat. "So, are you going on the special trip?"
Dennis raised an eyebrow in confusion. He tried to keep up to date with all the events that were happening at the tower, but this was the first time he heard anything about a trip. "What special trip?" the goat asked with an intrigued voice.
"Whaaaat? You don't know about it? The new guys and gals always go on the trip. I can't believe no one has told you about it!" As the rat spoke his grin became more and more devious.
"No, no one told me anything about a trip." The goat responded innocently.
"Man, I don't know how momma forgot to mention it to you. I think I can help you out, if you REALLY want to go on the trip that is!" Marty said with a feign innocence.
"Is it overnight? Would I need to pack anything? Would I need to schedule some time off at work?" Dennis asked hastily, excitement building as images of padded log cabin retreats and camping while diapered filled his head.
"So, do you REALLLLLY want to go on the trip?" Taking advantage of the goat's distracted state Marty stealthily moved his right leg behind the goat's left leg.
"Sure! I'd love to go on the trip!" Dennis blurted out.
That was what Marty had been waiting for all night. An absolutely evil smile came across the rat's face. "Great! Have fun!" He shouted out as he suddenly pushed the goat away from him with all his might.
As Dennis went flying backward he felt his left leg get caught on something hard. He didn't fall immediately; when his leg was free again the goat was still standing. Desperate to regain balance the goat began waving his arms in large circles as he clumsily fell backward. Before he was able to regain any control Dennis smashed into the block tower he and his siblings had built, sending him and it crashing to the ground.
Marty began howling with laughter. Between breathes and chuckles the rat managed to say "see ya next fall!"
Dennis sat up and began looking around the nursery confusedly. Since everything had happened so fast it took a few seconds for his brain to put together what just transpired. As the pieces came together in his mind the goat turned and gave the laughing rat a pathetic look that screamed 'why?'
The feeling of betrayal, along with the rat's malicious laughter rekindled some painful memories that had been locked away in the goat's head. A few particularly painful memories of childhood bullying began playing over and over in his head. Dennis felt a deep pain in his heart, and before he knew it he trying, and failing, to fight back a flow of tears.
"MARTY!!! YOU ASSHOLE!!!" The lioness screamed out at the top of her lungs.
At this point Marty was hunched over with laughter, holding his sides as if they were trying to escape from his body. The laughing fit made it physically painful for him to talk, but Marty responded to the lioness anyway. "Don't talk... snk... like that... young... haha... lady!"
"MARTIN!!!" A familiar feminine voice rang out through the nursery.
Marty's laughter quickly stopped. A brief expression of shock that screamed 'oh crap' came over the rat's face. It soon melted back into his normal, smug look. "Heya Momma Midnight!"
"Don't you 'heya' me little pup! I saw everything!" Kim approached the three with a look of rage in her eyes that the little ones in the nursery had never seen before.
Marty grimaced and began rubbing the back of his head. A sense of impending doom welled up in the rodent, but he tried to play it cool. "Ah, yeah! I was just playing with my new brother!"
Kim gave a condescending look to Marty. "Oh, you were just playing? Cause Dennis looks like he's not having fun."
Marty gave a toothy grin and ran over to the goat. "Naw! He's having a great time! Tell her bro! We were just playing right!?"
The lioness stepped forward and spoke up. "He's lying momma! Marty came in and pretended to be nice to Dennis, but then pushed him into the tower we made for you!"
Kim turned her head towards Dennis. The moment she noticed the tears in the goat's eyes she ran over and started comforting the kid. After a few nose kisses and soft words the bad memories faded in the goat's mind and the flow of tears stopped. Once Dennis calmed down enough the squirrel momma asked, "Is that true? Did Martin Push you, sweety?"
Still too choked up to speak properly Dennis nodded his head. The instant Kim saw the gesture she turned to Marty and gave him the most cross stare she could muster. "Martin, you JUST finished a week in the white room an hour ago, and you're already causing mischief!"
Marty mustered a pitiful look and a babyish tone before he began talking. "Aw, I'm really sorry momma; I was just playin' wif him."
Kim let out a loud 'hmph' followed by, "No, you're only sorry that you got caught. If you were really sorry you wouldn't have been laughing like a maniac!"
Marty countered with his own 'hmph' and gave the squirrel an angry stare, but he quickly found his nasty looks were no match for Kim's cross stare. Flattening his ears and looking at the ground the rat spoke. "I'll... just go back to the white room."
"No" Kim said sternly.
Marty's ears perked up and he once again looked Kim directly in the eye. He had to lightly bite his lower lip to keep from smiling, as the thought of getting off with only a warning swam around his head. After all, Kim had made it a point to let everyone know that as long as they were babies, she wouldn't kick them out. With no time out in the white room, there was really nothing else she could do to him.
"It's clear to me that timeouts aren't doing anything for you. I'm going to have to go a step further." She said as she leered down at the rat.
Cupping her paws around her mouth Kim loudly said. "Jason, mommy needs you to do something real quick."
In just a few seconds a black Labrador dressed in a dark green polo shirt and a plain white diaper ran towards the squirrel with his ears perked up. As soon as he was close enough to speak normally he came to a complete stop before saying. "Yes mama?"
Kim returned her voice to its normal, tender state and spoke. "Deary, can you go to mommy's office and get the attitude adjuster?"
Jason's eyes grew wide and a large smile came across his face. "dohohoho! Are you sure?" The black lab asked.
"As sure as sugar, sweetie pie" The squirrel replied, giving the dog a warm, motherly smile.
Saying nothing more the black lab darted off to the double doors at the front of the nursery. Once he was out of the room Kim turned towards the rat again. Giving him the most non-threatening angry stare she could. For his part, Marty just stood still, rapidly looking around the room. He was hopelessly confused, his whole time being a member at the tower he had never heard of an attitude adjuster.
Without alleviating the rat's confusion Kim began to scan the nursery. She quickly found what she was looking for, one of the older siblings. "Violet, can you do something for momma real fast?"
The cheetah swiftly turned to face Kim before a giving a huge smile to the squirrel and happily replying with a quick "sure!"
"Could you please get the brown bench out of the closet?" Violet gasped in response to the request. After a few seconds of reading Kim's body language to make sure she was serious the cheetah scurried off without saying anything.
Marty was beginning to get incredibly uncomfortable with what was happening. "Um, momma, what are you going to do exactly?"
Without even looking at the rat Kim replied with a "you'll see, dear."
Without warning the double doors to the nursery opened wide and Jason walked in with a huge grin on his face. He held the object in his paw up as high as he could and began to recite a loud proclamation to the nursery.
"An artifact cut from the finest California redwood! Balanced to one hundred percent perfect symmetry, sanded down to a completely flat surface, and finished one thousand times over! Perfect holes carefully punched through it that it meets no resistance from the air! Feller of the mightiest and most powerful of butts around the world! All hail the legendary Attitude Adjuster! " The black lab shouted out as he moved towards Kim.
Once he was within a few feet of his mommy the dog through his head back and yelled as loud as he could, trying to get the attention of the nursery and all the ancillary rooms. "IS EVERYONE READY FOR SEARED RAT BUNS?"
Marty's eyes opened wide and he let out a gasp as it hit him what was going on. When he first passed his VIP test the older siblings had told him that they gave spankings if needed. However; despite being a member for over a year the rat had never seen anyone get spanked.
Just then Violet returned to the nursery with a medium sized brown bench lugged over her shoulder. The cheetah sat the bench against the wall and dusted the top off with her paw. Once it was clean she stood up and looked at Kim expectantly.
"Okay Martin, I didn't want it to have to come to this, but you've got to learn your lesson!" Kim said sternly as she reached for the rat's paw.
"Errr! Wait momma! I'm really sorry about what I did! I promise I'll be on my best behavior from now on." Marty cried out as Kim walked him towards the bench.
With a snicker the lioness commented. "You're damn right you will be."
The two reached the bench and stopped. Marty frantically looked around the room and to his horror saw that all of his siblings were watching. Feeling panic welling up the rat blurted out. "Momma! Please! You can't do this!"
Kim closed her eye and let out a sigh. "You're right, I can't"
Marty let out a deep sigh of relief, but Kim quickly followed up with a second statement that sent a wave of absolute terror down the rat's spine. "Your big brother Manny is going to do it!"
Quickly ascending the ramp that led into the nursery's main play area was the large brown boar. When he locked eyes with Marty he gave a snort. Seeing Manny's large form and gargantuan arms caused the rat to whine in fear.
Noticing how frightened Marty was Jason mustered the biggest smile he could and cheerfully walked over to his older brother. He handed the paddle to Manny, whom began swinging it as hard as he could against the air.
Marty let out a small 'eeek' as he heard the paddle produce a sharp whistle. Manny's incredible upper body strength combined with the paddle's aerodynamic design was literally making music.
The boar gave out a hearty chuckle before moving to sit down on the brown bench. With tears already forming in his eyes Marty fell to his knees and began begging for mercy. "Pleeeeease! I promise I'll never misbehave again! I'll do anything!"
Kim kept her stern expression while replying. "Go to your big brother Manny and bend over."
"No! Please!" Before he could say anymore Marty was interrupted by Manny arm wrapping around his body.
At this point, snickers and giggles were running rampant in the other VIPs in the nursery. This prompted Kim to turn around and give her children a slightly condescending look. "Now children, don't laugh at your brother's misfortune!"
Manny sat down on the bench and quickly bent Marty's small body over his knee. As Manny was raising the paddle into the air he was interrupted by Kim's voice shouting, "Wait!"
Manny complied and the rat smiled as he believed he was receiving a last second pardon. Unfortunately for Marty Kim quickly walked forward and pulled his diaper down around his ankles, exposing his rear to the entire nursery. A wave of embarrassment washed over the rat while Kim quickly explained. "That diaper was far too thick! He wouldn't have felt it as bad as he needs to!"
Manny once again raised the wooden paddle above his head. Sniffling, Marty held his head up and turned around to face the boar. "Big bro... Please... I'll do anything... I'll give you a dollar..." the rat managed to weakly plea between sniffles and whimpers.
The boar didn't respond to the rat's sad plea. Instead, he swung the paddle down as hard as he could. The paddle whistled in the air as it descended before it landed on the Rat's butt cheeks with a loud smack.
Some of the onlookers gasped, some giggled uncontrollably, despite their momma's early words. A few of the onlookers propped themselves on their toes and shifted forward slightly, as if they paddle had hit them and not Marty.
Marty screamed out at the top of his lungs. Undeterred by the sound the boar once again raised the paddle above his head before bringing it down on the rat's rear. After just two licks Marty was wildly crying like a real toddler.
For his part Dennis gasped and cringed as each loud smack rang out across the nursery. The lioness noticed the goat's discomfort and moved in to talk to him. She got close and whispered, "don't worry about it. He totally deserves this. He's always doing crap like that."
Dennis turned to the lioness and whispered back to her. "Why? What's his deal?"
The lioness sighed. "When he first joined he was pretty nice, but after a few months he suddenly declared himself the bully of the nursery. I guess he thought it would make the place feel more authentic? Let's just say he takes role-playing a little too seriously."
Dennis looked towards Marty and Manny in time to see Manny showing off Marty's glowing red butt to the nursery. After all his siblings got a good look the boar pulled the rat's diaper back up before standing him up. Marty was wailing at the top of his lungs and softly rubbing his backside through the thick plastic. The goat leaned in towards the lioness again and whispered. "Oh, so he's just role-playing right now?"
The lioness laughed to herself for a few seconds before answering. "No I think this is for real."
Both Dennis and the lioness felt a paw touch their shoulders. They both turned in unison to see their beaver brother from before. "Hey guys, now that the shows over do you wanna play with blocks some more?"
The two answered with a giddy "sure!" As they began to walk back to where they had been before Dennis looked towards the corner that Marty was now standing in. "Is he gonna be alright?" the goat asked.
The lioness shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Once the fire stops burning I'm sure he'll be fine."