Chapter II

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken

• Oscar Wilde

    “Well he does look cute all curled up and padded, it's just a shame he can't seem to be able to enjoy it properly."

    “Keep your voice down, some people have an acute sense of hearing you know, even when they're sleeping!"

    “Yeah yeah, alright.  But if he can sleep through this storm, he can probably sleep through a hushed conversation."

    Theo's eyes shot open, wide awake.  He looked across the room to the window, underneath which sat a table and a few chairs.  In two of them sat two men.  Furthest from him reclined a brown haired, amber eyed individual wearing a pair of black jeans and a dirt colored shirt with a heart on it.  In the other, a person with hair and eyes the color of a summer sky on a sweltering day was dressed similarly to the other person except his blue shirt sported a rain cloud with raindrops and hearts falling from it.

    Theo tensed and so did they, their eyes moving to his, as the brown haired individual held a half raised coffee mug to his pursed lips.

    “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!"

    Theo scrambled to his feet and spit out his pacifier, he glanced down, remembering the clothing he was wearing and moved swiftly behind his couch in an attempt to both hide his garments and put an obstacle between the men and him .  However, the two men didn't seem bothered by his interesting choice of apparel.  

    The blue haired individual stood up and put his arms up in a calming gesture, while the other set down his tea cup, Theo's own coffee mug he realized to his further indignation. 

    The man standing spoke, “Relax, we're not here to hurt you or do anything bad to you.  We sensed that you were in great distress and came to help-"

    “Get out of my house now or I'm calling the police!"

    Theo was slowly backing away from them into the kitchen, where he had left his cell phone to charge.  He'd call the police and get these freaks out of his house.  He realized that the police would probably see him in his childish get up.  This caused him some pause, which the brown haired man seemed to notice and take advantage of.

    Standing up he said, “You know, it's okay to want to be treated like a baby and wear diapers."

    Theo stopped shuffling back, suddenly red hot anger flushed his cheeks and he roared back.

    “WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

    Halfway through his exclamation his voice broke, and he stood in silence, breathing heavily and feeling as if he were on the brink of tears. 

    The blue haired man sighed, and walked over to where Theo's rejected pacifier lay sadly in a corner.  

    “I understand you're feeling alarmed and upset by our sudden appearance, but please calm down a little.  Allow us to explain who we are and why we are here, and after you let us give our bit and you still want us out of your house, we will leave and never come back again.  I wholeheartedly promise."

    Something about the sincerity of the man seemed to lower Theo's anger by a few notches, and his embarrassment to his clothing returned slightly.  The thought of sitting down in front of these two people wearing nothing but some socks, a diaper concealed poorly by his onesie made him squirm. 

    Almost as if he were able to read Theo's distressed thoughts, the brown haired man added, "We're not here to judge you, we just came here to try and help you out.  My name is Tenderheart, and we call my compatriot here Grumpy.  And, believe it or not, we're the Care Bears.  They made a television show after us which you may be familiar with, seeing how you're wearing Grumpy's own design of diapers.  Besides, you were a fan when you were younger if I remember correctly."

    “Glad to see somebody enjoying my absorbent engineering!"  Grumpy added, smiling broadly at Theo as he took a seat on the couch.   

    “Your. . . what?"  Theo was puzzled, did this man really have some sort of role in the design of the diaper he was wearing?  He shook his head, "That isn't important right now, there are strangers in my house!"

    Deciding to negotiate before he called the police, he carefully walked back over to the couch and sat at the opposite end to where Grumpy reclined, his eyes narrowed wearily.

    “Fine. What do you want?" he said curtly, still on high alert and irritated by these men's interruption of what should have been a blissful evening.  

    “What we want isn't all that important, it's what you want that we're interested in."  replied Tenderheart.  The man's voice was friendly yet firm, a bit akin to the sound of wet gravel his words cut through the air.  Not loudly, but in a loud enough tone that even the most narcissistic speaker would hush up to listen.  

    Grumpy nodded in agreement, smiling at Theo, who was still unnerved by everything.

    “You honestly expect me to believe that they made the Care Bear's brand after you guys?  Like just because you show up wearing their shirts, call yourselves after the, and even dye your own hair," he gestured vaguely at Grumpy, his attention fixed on Tenderheart, “I'm supposed to buy it?  Come on, I wasn't born yesterday."

    He began to work himself up, his fury from a few minutes ago returning,"Is it money you want?  Information?  Well if so you picked the wrong person's place to break into because I barely have enough money to buy food for myself, I'm in college."

    Grumpy shook his head, his smiling waning and a serious expression coming on to face,"You're missing what we're trying to tell you because you're still distracted by fear, which is the point we're trying to tell you.  We came here because we sensed that you were having a great difficulty.  A difficulty in accepting who you are as a person.  We wanted to come here to tell you that it's okay to still feel like a little baby, and even indulge in some of the activities of an infant, like dressing up in baby clothes, wearing diapers, drinking from baby bottles, and even using your diapers.  Sure it's not what everybody is into, but that doesn't make it wrong or bad.  It just means you need a little bit more care and love from the people around you, and do any of those things sound bad?"

    Theodore was having serious difficulty processing the things that were being said to him.  His impression that the men were invading his home was wavering as the things the blue haired man spoke rang true with him.  He did have an internal struggle with this aspect of him, he had not dared indulge in it recently after, in a moment of courage, he'd decided to make a few purchases with his birthday money.  

It had been nerve wracking trying to figure out how to get the stuff shipped without anybody finding out, he found himself even nervous that the mailman might find out that he had ordered adult baby diapers.  Even though logically he knew he probably wouldn't care if he found out, Theo was still incredibly embarrassed and ashamed at the thought of a total stranger knowing what  he was into.  And now, two total strangers claiming to be the inspiration for two main characters of the Care Bears held such knowledge. 

Still something was beginning to dawn on Theo, the amount of accurate information they were providing about him was shocking to say the least.  Still, he thought, could it be possible that they actually are the Care Bears? 

He twisted his hands in his lap, uncomfortable with that entire ordeal and wishing that he'd never ordered the stuff to begin with.  He looked Grumpy straight in the eye, and replied coldly, “What I need or do not need as a person is irrelevant, you are trespassing on my home and violating my privacy.  I have zero reason to trust any of you."

Tenderheart spoke up, “You don't trust the ones who gave you a feeling of safety as a child?  How do you think we fund our organization?  How do you think we keep our translocator running?  It was Grumpy's idea to start the Care Bears brand in this world, and thanks to that many kids like you were able to at least get a sample of our vocation and values.  Without our efforts, you wouldn't be the person you are today."

“Don't you remember how much you loved us as a child?"  Grumpy added in earnest. 

Theo's anger was shifting into confusion and curiosity.  Translocator?  Organization?  Were these people from a cult?  He frowned, these guys were crazy!  As crazy as he thought they might be, something nagged at the back of his mind.  A hope that what they were telling him was in fact a truth, a fantasy come true even.  Trace will never believe me when I tell her this, Theo thought to himself, I'll just have to cut a few. . . infantile details when I do.

He crossed his arms, still defiant at the men's presence.  “You talk about worlds and translocation like I'm supposed to understand what on earth you're talking about.  If you're really the people that inspired the Care Bears, can you perform any magic?" he waggled his fingers in the air in mock fright, "Do you have a magic flying cloud car in which you patrol the skies with, looking for random adults dressed up as babies who aren't comfortable with who they are?"

His voice quivered slightly as he finished his sentence, a fact that bothered him quite a lot as he realized that what Grumpy had said to him was the complete and honest truth.  How did they read me so damn well? he thought, These guys must really be good at getting people into their cult.  Oh God. . . they're going to blackmail me aren't they?  Fuck me, they must have tracked my online purchase. . .  But how did they judge my character so accurately and say things to me I've literally told noone?

“Well, the show was a bit of an embellishment as to what we can do, but we do have some magical abilities and advanced technology." Tenderheart continued.  “But those are usually used to maintain our realm's functionality and keep our city airborn.  Grumpy here and I specialize in is actually psychological aid as well as a few other forms of healthcare.  But mostly we just try and help people with identity issues.  Such as yourself."

Theo felt a twinge of offense.  Identity issues?  Did he really have such a vice?  True he struggled with believing this part of himself was okay, he still was very much ashamed of it, albeit that he had recently allowed himself to indulge. 

 He shook his head again, he was missing the point.  These men obviously had an agenda they were hiding.  The sooner he figured that out, the sooner he could decide on his next course of action.  He had to keep them talking and get them to slip up.  However, no matter how hard he tried to fight it it was almost as if a part of him wanted to believe these people were telling the truth and believe that his dreams had come true.

“Prove it." he said flatly.

“Prove what?" replied Grumpy, an expression of genuinely puzzlement crossing his face.

    “Prove that you're the 'Care Bears,' I want some evidence that what you're saying isn't just bullshit."

    Tenderheart frowned, and an admonishing tone entered his voice,"Theo, I know you're still very upset and having a hard time finding it in yourself to believe us, but please don't use that kind of language, it isn't fitting for a kind person like you."

    Theo smirked, and thought to himself, Buttering me up huh, wow classic cult move.  Make me feel enlightened and superior in who I am.  Then whoosh, my money and life gone, in control of some megalomaniac.  Theo's internal sarcasm waned however, as again he found himself leaning on the side of wanting to believe the two people in front of him.  He no longer really believed they were a cult anymore, however a slight weariness of them still remained.

    Grumpy just shrugged, and pulled up his shirt, revealing his upper body.  Theo gaped, in the center of his chest glowed a blue, spherical object, glowing and surrounded by several azure-colored glowing lenses that expanded and contracted above the object.   Tenderheart followed suit as well, except his chest instrument glowed red instead of blue.

    “These are our flux cores, or power sources.  They enable us to perform what you understood in the show to be magic."  Looking a little sheepish but grinning, he added,"Those tummy symbols were just a gimmick for the show we developed, but after it kicked off so well we adopted them as our symbols."

    “Yep.  That's it.  I've lost it." Theo said out loud, his mouth agape as he stared at the mesmerizing movements of the devices in front of him.  With each heaving breath the various lenses adjusted themselves into different positions, performing a dance that he couldn't drag his eyes away from. 

    Grumpy chuckled, and lowered his shirt.  “No, you haven't lost it.  However maybe now you'll realize that we're telling the truth and not just some random people who have broken into your condo.  Now will you please give us a chance?  We really do want to help you."

    Theo's mind was whirling, he really couldn't understand what was happening to him.  Here he was, dressed in a diaper and onesie, sitting across from two men who had some sort of crazy technology wedged in the center of their bodies who were telling him that he should accept himself. 

It was at that moment that his bladder decided to tell him that he needed to pee really badly.