MyStory Online: Paddington Castle
by Relee the Squirrel

Ping! “Download Complete.”

Looking at his computer monitor, Jamie, a white rabbitfolk, confirmed that he’d finished downloading the latest update for his favorite VRMMO, MyStory Online.

Full-dive virtual reality had finally been perfected and released to a hungry audience five years ago. Jamie had been playing since the start. He loved all the adventures and amazing sights, sounds, and feelings he could experience in this other world of MyStory Online. All it took was a modern computer and a specialized headset that took the player into a waking dream of a virtual world.

The newest update for MyStory Online promised new adventures and new experiences in this amazing fantasy world, and he couldn’t wait to see what was in store. It had to be better than his mess of a bedroom, with half-full trash bags in the corner, discarded energy drink cans here and there, and his clothes separated into two piles: dirty and clean.

Dressed in his simple light blue pyjamas, he laid down on his bed and slipped the crown-like VR-Dive headset around his head. He pushed the log-in button, and closed his eyes. Moments later, he opened them again, and he saw a whole other world!

Tall mountains in the distance, vast fields and forests, and a fantastic city in the center of it all, with high towers and floating, magical architecture. He was in the village of Foresten, on the edge of the hilltop forest south of the valley, and the view blew him away every time he logged in. 

His clothes were different, too. He wore long white robes with blue accents; the unofficial uniform of the Priest class in this world. He carried a long ornate staff with an elaborate glowing crystal structure on the tip. A book of spells and UI elements was ever on his hip. Here he wasn’t just Jamie Lyric, he was Fulston Haverick, Adventurer Priest!

Soon, Fulston turned away from the view and walked through the village streets to the home of his Guild, the Rose Knights. He was sure everyone would be there to discuss the new additions to their favorite game and world.

The guild house was located in a wooded courtyard, contained entirely within a huge, living tree. Decorated with love and flowers, it was a fun place to hang out and strategize between adventures. A shining bell hung next to the door. Fulston rang it as he passed by into the main hall.

“Fulston Haverick! Coming in!” he said, and the gathered guildmates looked at him with a mix of smiles and welcoming nods.

At the head of the table was their stalwart leader, the Lion Paladin Everett Domint. He wore his heavy steel plate-mail armor on his body and brilliant blue cloak, along with his sword and shield bound to his back. He was always a serious sort, if a little rude and pushy at times. He was looking down at a map of the new areas on the table.

Next to Everett was Excess Damage, the red-scaled Dragon Mage, dressed in black robes with red trim. His actual in-game name was XxDamagexX but the others called him Excess as a joke, and the nickname stuck. He was the guild’s best damage-per-second and area of effect caster combined, and a close friend to Everett.

Brooding in the shadowy spot beneath the staircase nearby was his opposite, the Wolf Dark Knight who was almost always in character, Gran Darkhope, in polished purple plate-mail. He liked to play with the others, but he tended to stand in dark corners looking intimidating when they weren’t on an adventure.

Next to the map table and dressed in forest greens and dark reds, the Ranger Kangaroo Dawn Riverwind was practicing her crafting skills. She was popular for the potions and medicines she made for the rest of the guild. She was preparing some right then for the upcoming journey to the new areas that were waiting ahead of them.

Finally, sitting under the staircase in skimpy black shorts and tunic and admiring a large garnet jewel, was Trixie Tangletail, the Mouse Rogue. She was a real explorer type player, trying to game every system she could find. She was a real terror at the auction house, and knew how to open every sort of lock that had been implemented in the game so far.

Fulston was the last to arrive, but with him there the party was ready to begin. They talked together about the new game changes, class modifications, and ability alterations that mattered to them. But they were all mostly interested in investigating the new dungeon added to the grasslands region called Paddington Castle.

They didn’t know much about the castle beyond its location on the map. The game developers had chosen to release very little information about this update, claiming they wanted the surprise of discovery to be part of the fun. So while Fulston’s guildmates had a map, they didn’t know exactly what they were getting into.

The trip started well; the guildmates mounting up and riding to the grasslands. It was a great region for riding, with lots of low rises and curving roads, filled with green or yellow grasses and little flowers. There were few monsters in the overworld to worry about so the party had no trouble getting to Paddington Castle. It was their first look at the place that shocked them, though.

Paddington Castle was a beautiful, palatial castle like many others in the game world, but unlike the rest it was done up in all pinks and whites and hearts all over, from the tops of its towers to the very foundation. The gate in front of it was in the shape and colour of a large red heart, with gold coloured heart-shaped handles to pull it open. It went against the theming of the area and the whole world up until now, where everything was serious fantasy. This was super twee cutesy-wootsey!

Exchanging looks of surprise and wary interest, the assembled guildmates discussed the sight as they set their mounts to take them to the castle gate.

Everett was the first to speak up, the Lion Paladin leaning into his riding bird and saying to Excess, who was riding beside him, “Can you believe this place? It looks like a cartoon. For babies.”

Excess replied after a moment, “You’re not wrong. It’s really different. But it could still be dangerous.” The Dragon Mage was riding his giant wooly ram straight ahead toward the castle.

Fulston was excited. With a cutesy heart theme on the castle, there was a good chance it had strong healer gear for him to loot. He pushed his giant deer mount to go quickly forward.

They arrived together in short order at the huge heart-shaped gate of the castle and whisked their mounts away to their inventories. They formed up on their leader, Everett. The big red gate was situated at the top of a short set of white steps. It was unlocked, disappointing Trixie, but they knew most of the dungeons in MyStory were unlocked at the start.

As Everett pulled open the gate, the party was presented with a pop-up notice.

“Enter Paddington Castle (Dungeon)?” it read, with the options Yes and No.

Everyone in the party selected Yes and, one by one, filed into the castle’s entrance chamber.

The interior was even more elaborate and exaggerated than the exterior. Everything was pinks and whites with rosy shadows in the corners. The light of the sky shone in through high-up stained glass windows, decorated with hearts and little cupid angels. Arched recesses lined the walls, decorated with tall murals of baby animals in large diapers. The floor was a mix of white stone and red carpets decorated in even more hearts.

The party kept a relatively tight formation with the heavily armored Everett and Gran taking the front and the others in the back. They soon spotted their first adversaries, marching out of alcoves behind large stairwells at the sides of the main chamber. It was a troupe of giant plush toys, each as big as the adventurers themselves, and each wearing a puffy diaper, bonnet, bib, and pacifier of pastel colours. They wielded huge toy rattles as weapons in their padded paws.

Trixie had a giggle at the sight of them, while Gran just gave a sigh. The stodgy dark knight was also an avid roleplayer, and it was becoming clear from the expressions on his face that he was pained to see this sort of cute frivolity in his favorite fantasy game.

“Hark, here come our foes!” said Gran, while Everett just snorted towards the plush patrol.

Excess was excited because he wanted to test his spells on these new targets. Combat began when he began casting a barrage of fireballs on their enemies. Everett’s glowing sword and shield clanged against the surprisingly durable rattles, and jabs from Gran’s darkness-sheathed spearhead pierced and ripped the fabric of the aggressive plushies.

The battle went on for some time, with new waves of padded baby plushies coming from beneath the stairways again and again, until finally combat was over. It was neither easy nor especially difficult, but the party knew that they had been in a fight. The remains of the plushies gradually vanished as their loot was collected by the party automatically, until the chamber was empty save for them.

Trixie was the first to move about the room independently as she searched for traps and secret doors like any good rogue should. When it was clear that no more enemies would pounce, the others started looking around the room as well.

Excess was investigating one of the murals when the trap triggered. A pair of cupid angels in the mural peeled their painted arms off the wall and grabbed him by the shoulders. He yelped for help but had to fight hard as they dragged him towards the wall.

“Excess!” shouted Everett. “Trixie, I thought you checked for traps?”

Trixie looked upset and said, “I did! I did! It must be magic!” as she stamped her foot on the carpeted floor.

Meanwhile Excess was being dragged closer and closer to the wall, his heels digging into the red carpeting. “Help me!” he said. 

The others went to him as quickly as they could, but even all together they didn’t have the strength to pull him back. Suddenly Excess was tugged INTO the wall, where his form was changed, bit by bit, into a painting of himself.

The cherub’s hands were on his shoulders, pushing him down. He could feel the weight of their grip pressing him. And as the others could only watch, he was transformed from a powerful dragon wizard into a mural painting of himself as a child, wearing only a diaper, bonnet, and bib. His pacifier was spit out in an illustrated burst of flame on the painting. And then all was quiet. A painting of two beatific cherubs holding the shoulders of a tantruming baby dragon was all that remained.

A moment passed as they all took a breath, and then Everett turned to Fulston and said, “Can you dispel the magic? Remove curse maybe?” The others turned to him as well.

Fulston tried to target the mural, but it was just a mural. So he tried an area of effect remove curse spell. Nothing happened.

“It’s not working,” said Fulston, frustrated.

“Hey, he’s not on comms either.” said Dawn, noticing their friend was nolonger broadcasting. “He must already be dead.”

Fulston got upset. “An instant death trap at the beginning? That doesn’t leave a corpse to target? That’s hardcore.”

Everett said, “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s be on our guard from here on out. Excess will have to come again next time, if we start farming this place.”

The group grumbled and shrugged shoulders but they all agreed there was no getting their friend back until his death timer ran out. And there was still a whole dungeon to check out.

The party found that the only path open to them was up the right hand staircase into another room. They made their way inside. This room was similar to the first, but with red velvet pillows scattered across the floor, in a mix of squares and heart shapes.

A high pitched giggling sound drew the party’s eyes up once they were all in the room, and there they saw a domed ceiling with a mural of clouds and cherub angels. The cherubs started to peel themselves off the walls and become solid and pudgy baby angels, with puffy diapers, tiny white wings, and golden bows with heart-tipped arrows. In the center was the first boss of the dungeon, The Mega-Cherub, whose presence was announced to the party in a text pop-up in their fields of vision.

A moment later and the battle was on! The cherub angels fired volleys of arrows at the party, while Everett and Gran held up shields to block them. Trixie dodged and went into stealth mode to sneak around behind the cherubs, while Dawn fired a burst of her own arrows into the air, raining them down on all the enemies at once. Fulston used his priestly magic to buff the stats of Everett, Gran and Dawn.

With one man down already, the fight was challenging for the party. They cut down Cherub after Cherub though, and Dawn in particular made a good showing with her skilled archery and agile kangaroo hopping. Gran got the last hit on the Mega-Cherub with a darkness enchanted spear thrust, and all the monsters were slain. The party took a breath and looked around for any new surprises, and as the monsters faded away they revealed a gilded pink chest in the center of the room that wasn’t there before.

Fulston pointed it out first, saying “Hey, a treasure chest!”

Trixie was already aware of it, fading in from stealth next to it and checking it for traps. After a moment she gave a thumbs-up to signal to the others that it was safe.

Everett said, “I hope it’s worth the trouble. This dungeon is so weird.” Gran nodded at him in agreement.

With everyone gathered around the chest, Everett reached forward and tipped the lid back. A pop-up entered the party’s field of view, declaring that the loot was a Cherub’s Bow and Cherub’s Armor. Both were ranger gear, so when they all rolled off on the equipment, only Dawn selected ‘Need’ instead of ‘Greed’ and so won the equipment.

The others were congratulating her when she was shocked to be suddenly forced to change equipment. Dawn was enveloped in a bright light that obscured everyone’s view, and a moment later she was wearing a white half-toga over her top, a puffy white diaper on her round kangaroo bottom, a golden halo ring hovering over her head, a pair of small white feathery wings on her back, and a gold bow and arrows set that floated behind them.

“What the heck?” said Trixie, “Why did you put it on now?”

“I didn’t…” said Dawn in response, blushing. “I… I feel funny…”

Covering herself shyly with her arms and crossing her legs, Dawn started to wobble back and forth until she fell flat on her puffy diapered butt! The others were about to help her but she started glowing with a golden light, and shrinking! Smaller, smaller, until the kangaroo girl was just a little baby in a fluffy diaper, like the cherubs that had attacked them. That’s when Fulston checked her equipment stats and saw what he was afraid of.

Cherub’s Bow (Cursed)
Cherub’s Armor (Cursed)

They all watched their friend in silent shock, as Dawn opened her eyes and looked up at them. Her eyes were glowing gold and she smiled and giggled in a childlike voice, before her wings began to flap and she zipped up into the air. “Oh I see! This is so fun! I’m going to rush to the end now!” and off she went, flying through the door that opened when the boss was defeated and disappearing, before any of the others could stop her.

“Dawn! Come back!” shouted Gran.

“She’s been cursed!” said Fulston, explaining the situation to the others.

Everett looked pissed. “What kind of dungeon is this, making us look so silly and all that stuff? This is a mess.”

Trixie just stood there rubbing her head in disbelief at what had happened.

The remaining four plucked up their courage and decided to head onwards into the dungeon. They took their time, not wanting to get caught by any traps that Dawn would have just flown over.

The corridor beyond the door had a few ‘trash mobs’ to keep things interesting. Just a few more baby plushies with big rattle weapons; nothing that the remaining four couldn’t handle.

Then they came upon a hallway with a wall and closed door covered in soft padded fabric. It was the only way left to go. So once Trixie had checked for traps, Everett pulled the door open and the party went inside.

This next room was all padded walls and floors with pillows and blankets strewn around. High up the walls turned blue with gold buttons to serve as twinkling stars, and a soft lamp in the ceiling served as a silent moon.

The room was full of sheep monsters with wooly coats of pastel colors, all laying about the place. They seemed slow and lazy, but they had noticed the party and were starting to move towards them.

It was Trixie who spotted a ladder on the wall, halfway across the room, leading into the starry vault of night that made up the ceiling.

“Come on gang, let’s get up that ladder before they get us!” said Trixie.

The others agreed and they all rushed to the ladder. Trixie went up first in stealth mode, to scout it out. Everett went up second in case there was a big monster that needed tanking up there. Gran rushed Fulston up the ladder as the sheep drew near, seeming to wake up and move faster. Fulston was just a few rungs up when Gran was tackled to the ground by three of the sheep.

“Gran! The sheep got him!” yelled Fulston to the others. But they were too far up the ladder to do anything, and Fulston couldn’t use his skills while he was climbing. He was considering jumping off the ladder to help Gran, but as a healer he was a soft target for monsters, and if their off-tank Dark Knight couldn’t handle them, neither could he.

Then the sheep started moving away, one sheep, two sheep, three sheep, four sheep? There was a black sheep in the flock, and it was Gran! They could tell because he was the only black sheep in the room. Their friend was already taken and there was nothing they could do, so they climbed the rest of the way up the ladder, the baa-ing of sleep sheep down below them.

The trio of guildmates found themselves in a children’s playroom at the top of the ladder. The floor was blue to match the ceiling of the previous room, and the walls had a childish maritime theme, with little boats and sailors and life rings painted on them.

Everett and Fulston climbed up to find Trixie already casing the room from the safety of stealth. She completed a circuit of the walls, having left the bright orange, arched door at the far end of the room closed. Then she saw the other two had gotten up the ladder, so she moved towards a blue toy-chest near the center of the room.

Everett said to Trixie, “Be careful! Remember the trap that got Dawn.”

Fulston added, “And the trap that got Excess too.”

Trixie turned around to face the others and said, “Oh I’m always careful, and there’s no traps on this chest that I can detect. And I want some loot for the trouble we’ve gone through.”

With her back turned, Trixie couldn’t see the baby-blanket tongue of the toybox mimic licking its lips as it opened its lid wider and wider behind her. With a shriek, a chomp, and a gulp, Trixie was gobbled up and the others received a notice that this was a boss, the “Toybox Mimic”. It reached out with one robot arm, one doll arm, and a pair of legs made out of a toy train and a transforming transport truck, and the battle was on.

With just their Paladin and Healer remaining, the fight was absolutely brutal, and took a long, long time. Everett was doing chip damage and Fulston had to use what harm spells he had to even hurt the thing, while their mutual healing magics kept them barely alive through it all.

Finally the box fell over backwards, spilling out a pile of toys on the floor, including one life-sized mouse rogue plushie! Her body was as limp as a wet noodle and her eyes were stitched on buttons. Her hair was a fabric mop and her hands and feet were mitts and booties.

Fulston cast every decurse and dispel he knew but nothing worked on their plushified friend.

“I don’t think we’re going to make it out of this dungeon.” said Fulston to Everett, the only other party member left.

“Oh come on, we can do it! This baby dungeon’s too stupid to let it beat us.” said Everett, turning his head away from the floppy plush that used to be Trixie.

Fulston lifted Trixie’s wrist one more time, letting it flop harmlessly against the floor, before he got up and joined Everett at the door.

It led to another pink and white hallway full of baby plushies, and the pair fought through them slowly. Their teamwork was making them start to think they might actually have a chance in this place.

They fought until they reached a large arched door lined with pink padding. The door was easily twice their height and wide enough for three people to stand side by side. Everett and Fulston looked at each other, nodded, and pressed on either side of the door, opening it wide.

When they entered the chamber beyond, they found it was a huge nursery inside. Six tall, close-barred, white cribs lined the walls. Each was big enough to hold an adult! There was also a high changing table and other nursery accessories around the room. The giant’s nursery matched the pink and white, heart-spotted theme of the dungeon’s halls.

As they looked around the otherwise empty room, the huge door behind them closed on its own, and another door on the far side of the room opened up, just as big as the other. Behind the great door on the other side was an astonishing sight.

Walking into the room was a giant, black and white holstein minotaur, with a pink bow on her left horn, and a pink heart-themed apron that ended just above her massive, dangling udders.

A popup message was received by the pair announcing the arrival of “The Mommy-Taur”

“Oh look what little darlings have come to play!” said the Mommy-Taur in a sing-song nanny voice. She was the first monster to speak in the whole dungeon, and that put the pair of adventurers off their balance as much as anything else.

Once she spoke, she stood there, as if waiting. She looked at the two of them, and they looked at her, then each other, then back to her. They charged!

Everett tried a sword swing but it bounced off of the Mommy-Taur’s stiff hoof-hand. Fulston fired a bolt of light, but the Mommy-Taur knocked it aside. Their attacks had no effect on this monster.

Her first attack smacked against Everett’s shield so hard that the lion lost his grip and the metal kite went flying to the side. Her second attack knocked away his sword, leaving him unarmed! Her third attack knocked Everett over, landing on his butt with a loud crinkling of metal armor.

“Now now,” said the Mommy-Taur, “don’t be naughty boys.” And with a bounding step she closed the range between her and Fulston. She knocked away his staff like she had Everett’s weapons, then grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and drew him into her arms like she was carrying a baby.

An eep was all Fulston could utter as he was carried over to a tall pink high-chair and placed firmly into it. He was quickly strapped down by the dutiful Mommy-Taur. She reached down into her apron and pulled out a baby bottle, saying “Here now baby, settle down and have some of Mama’s Milk.”

The bottle was thrust into Fulston’s face and he tried to maneuver away from it, but he was stuck. The creamy white stuff squirted from the nipple and touched his tongue. He was stuck! His mouth started nursing from the bottle against his will!

That’s when Everett tried to tackle the Mommy-Taur about the legs. “Forgetting someone!?” he said, in his daring attack. But the Mommy-Taur was unphased, and barely wiggled her legs as the heavy plate-clad paladin grabbed onto her.

“Oh! It looks like my other little one wants some attention!” said the Mommy-Taur as she reached down and started peeling Everett out of his armor.

“Stop that! This is humiliating!” said Everett, who was frustrated at the difficulty of this monster and the embarrassing way it treated them.

The Mommy-Taur reached down and pulled the disarmed and unarmored Lion onto his hands and knees and dragged him closer. “Why don’t you have some of Mama’s Milk too, right from the tap?” she said, and she pulled Everett’s face closer and closer to the teats of her bulging udders.

Everett wasn’t playing along, though. As soon as he got his mouth close to those pendulous nipples he bit down on one of them as hard as he could.

The Mommy-Taur MOOOOOOOED as loud as she could from the pain of it. Everett laughed at her suffering, glad to finally do some damage.

The Mommy-Taur's mood turned sour as she looked down at Everett. “Oh you naughty boy!” she said, and she picked him up from under his arms. “There’s only one cure for you, so down the hatch you go!” and as Everett yelled and cried out, the Mommy-Taur stuffed him head first down her throat and, without chewing, gulped him down into her belly, which she patted victoriously. 

Fulston was suddenly alone, and notably still alive, with the Mommy-Taur turning her head to look at him. She smiled. He suckled on the baby bottle helplessly. It was almost empty. His HP and MP were maxed but he couldn’t use any of his abilities without his staff, which lay off to the side. He was helpless.

Bouncing her hips back and forth as she approached Fulston, the Mommy-Taur said, “You know, we’re not so different, you and I.” she giggled, “You’re a baby and I’m a mama, sure, but we’re both caretakers. I saw how you tried to carry this group through Paddington Castle and it was very brave! But now you belong to Mommy-Taur and you’ll be mine forever.”

Picking up Fulston from the high chair, the Mommy-Taur carried him over to the changing table. Fulston wanted to fight her, but his body felt limp and soft, it was hard to move anything.

The Mommy-Taur took Fulston’s priestly robes off of him, and his smallclothes too. The naked but neuter game avatar of Fulston Haverick was on full display on that changing table. He could feel everything. He could feel the powder and cream applied to his bottom, and the crinkly white diaper being taped up around him.

Finally, the Mommy-Taur picked something up out of Fulston’s sight and laid him out on it. She buttoned it up around him, a pair of Mommy-Taur full-body pyjamas that looked just like her, even with the bow and apron!

“There you go, now you’re Mama’s baby forever-more, and I’ll take care of you from now on!” She carried him to one of the cribs to lay him down to sleep. As Fulston grew tired, the text came up in his view.

“Game Over: Defeated by Mommy-Taur.”

After that, he was given the option to log-out, or go to the main menu. Defeated and humiliated, he selected log-out.

Waking up in the real world, Jamie Lyric felt something was off almost right away, as he reached up for the VR dive crown and pulled it off his head. It caught on something. Then he noticed he could feel cloth around his hands. He wasn’t wearing anything like that when he went down.

Sitting up he looked at himself, and the white bunny saw that he was wearing a set of Mommy-Taur pyjamas just like in the game! What’s more, his bed wasn’t his bed; it was a crib just like in the game as well! He looked around, and where his room should be, was a pink and white nursery full of toys and baby accessories, sized for grown-ups, or giants…

And there she was, the Mommy-Taur, as real as anything, standing over him with a smile on her face. “I told you baby, you belong to Mommy-Taur now.”

The End?