✅ Potty Genius [NaNoWriMo 2022]

Twenty-Seven

¿How long did it take you to realise your diaper was wet?

I knew it was wet. I knew I'd just wet myself, and I was frustrated by that. The difference was that I didn't realise I needed to change. It's like the little piece of logic that said a wet diaper needs changing was missing from my brain. So it's like I thought it was gross, but I didn't know there was something I could do about it. I know how weird that sounds, but that's how it felt. I even thought about it a couple of times; regretting choosing this badge that made me lie here with the heavy bulk of a wet diaper between my legs. And I wondered if there was any risk it would leak if the other potty timer appeared while I was lying here. But it never occurred to me that changing it would make any difference to those problems.

I lay there for quite a while, until I got bored of not doing anything. I got up and went to my desk, and tried chatting to my friends online. Some people were doing fun things, but none of it particularly interested me. There was always a thread of conversations about leaving town, and all the different places that people were going to university; and I think some of my friends were a bit quieter than usual this month because that worried them, and they didn't want to be reminded of it any more than they had to be. It was certainly a big change, and that was scary for a lot of us.

After a while I decided that it was time to do something new with my time. I went looking for rumours and guesses about where the plot of That Boy was going to go next, and from there I found myself reading fanfiction; so many people had written their own little stories about what they wanted to happen to Boy, or to the Headmaster. Or what they imagined Headmaster doing to That Boy, which was more than a little disturbing.

It was a decent way to fill my day, in any case. I didn't realise how much time had passed until my phone vibrated with an alarm, and buzzed across my desk so far that it almost fell onto the floor. It was one of the reminders I'd set in my schedule; telling me that the shorter of the two pee timers had definitely gone off now, so the remaining one had to be the penalty one. Helpfully, the message also included a direct instruction: to take my diaper off if it was wet. I thought that was a really good idea, so I got a clean diaper out of the closet, picked up a pack of wipes, and walked back to the bathroom.

¿Could you change okay?

Yeah. You mean did the badge stop me? It didn't seem to make any difference once I was going to get changed. I guess the intention to change my diaper was what made the difference. It stopped me being able to realise that I needed a change, or to connect that to the fact that I was wet. But once I'd decided that I was changing, I could go through with it without any problems. I'd just needed a little reminder. Like a kid, I guess, with parents there to ask if they're wet.

I went to the bathroom as well. I was allowed to sit on the potty again, and told the app what I was doing. And then I had nothing do do for twenty minutes except play stupid games on my phone. I played the usual suspects, and then saw an ad that prompted me to try something new. There was a game called Shadow Covenant Go!. I thought the name sounded familiar; I'd probably seen the guys at school who wanted to think they were hardcore gamers talking about how much they loved playing Shadow Covenant, but I wasn't really sure what difference the 'Go' on the end of the name was. Did that mean it was a mobile version, or was it one of those games I'd heard about where you actually had to go somewhere and have your phone track your exercise as a part of the game?

I had to admit that I didn't really know, but the video on the ad showed a nervous-looking soldier attempting to flirt with a very serious hologram or something; it implied that there was some kind of plot deeper than just shooting at things, and a game that might be interesting. And that was enough to get me to try it.

Okay, I'll admit that I wasn't normally one to be taken in by the promises of some advertisement. But I don't think I was any more gullible than usual, like I might have been under the influence of the Teddy badge. I was just bored, I'd run out of lives on Bubble Hunt Magnate, and I wanted something to pass the time. So I installed it, and started playing through a tutorial. It seemed like in this game you played a computer, which seemed like it would limit the possibility for any romance stories. But maybe that was just a conceit for the training missions, to help you get used to the controls before meeting your soldiers or something.

To my surprise, the concise, factual exchanges between the computer I was controlling and the training computer seemed to portray a personality for both of them. My computer was brash and bold, determined to prove herself capable in a world dominated by more humanlike AIs based on great military generals of ages past; while Teacher reminded me very much of a strict school teacher. Like the old lady we'd had in my earliest memories of school, who could change at an instant from comforting a distressed child to laying down the law about how things were done in her classroom. Fair, and kind, but the sort of person who would take no nonsense at all. The one who would listen to all your excuses, and then set out exactly why you were wrong. One of my strongest memories was of one of her science classes, when some bright kid had insisted that he already knew this stuff and he knew better. She hadn't shut down the person disagreeing with her, but had listened, and had then been able to find the mistakes in his argument. To me, that scene cemented in my mind what a teacher should be, and I'd wished for years afterwards that I could still be in the first year.

It was pretty amazing that a game could give so much atmosphere to a character who only existed as words on a screen. And I was interested to see if Teacher even existed beyond the tutorial. But I couldn't find out now, because a box with purple and teal spiralling swirls on it appeared, and told me to leave the bathroom.

I put my phone down on the corner of the sink, stood, and started to pull my diaper up, before the phone flickered again and another message appeared.

> 𝙴𝙼𝙿𝚃𝚈 𝙱𝙻𝙰𝙳𝙳𝙴𝚁 <

I started to pee immediately, glad that I hadn't been waiting the rest of the evening for that message. But after about two seconds, as I felt the stream of hot pee running down my legs, I panicked for a second and forced myself to sit down again. But there was already pee all down my legs, splashed into the diaper, a little on my pants, and too much on the floor. I cursed a little under my breath, and then picked up my phone again to tell the app what had happened. I'd had an accident; it expected that, and asked me to confirm that I had peed. But then I had to tell it that I'd managed to wet my diaper, clothes, floor, and the toilet seat; even if I had managed to get some of it in the potty.

This time, the fireworks display on the screen seemed to be faintly mocking as it praised me for almost making it. I wondered if I'd had the worst possible luck, or if the app was specifically designed to cause incidents like that by giving the two instructions close together. I didn't know if there was any way a non-programmer could tell the difference. But I sobbed a little bit as I cleaned myself up with baby wipes, and took my pants off ready to toss them in the laundry hamper. At least I didn't need to do urgent laundry; the stains were small enough that it would probably dry off in contact with my other clothes, and it would still be just as clean when it went through the regular weekly laundry cycle.

¿Were you okay for the rest of the evening?

It wasn't too bad. I put on a fresh diaper, and clean sweat pants. I would probably have changed into my pyjamas already, but I didn't think I could get away with that. It was still a little before dinner time, and Mum and Dad would start to worry if I didn't make any effort to get dressed. I cancelled my alarm, as well. I wouldn't need a reminder to change my diaper again, having just changed it now. I guess that over all, I was just grateful that the second timer had chosen to surprise me when my bladder wasn't particularly full, and the mess was fairly easy to clean up. I couldn't wait for the day Theo would be able to free me from this torment.