Tale #143: Book Ends

Tale #143: Book Ends (Part 4 (and possibly the finale) of 'Crib Notes in the Baby Book') (Content Tags: Reality alteration, regression, mental regression, messy diapers, humiliation, karma) It felt really peculiar to be wearing a diaper. Zachary had hardly been able to remember what Pull-ups felt like, and a diaper was easily twice as cumbersome in its cushioning. The garment was also rather noisy, with each step announcing what he wore underneath his shorts. He would have at least put on some underwear over the puffy thing, in a bid to secure it in place and minimize the noise, but no such undergarment existed in his drawers. There were only diapers, not even Pull-Ups; it represented a complete deprivation of autonomy, and spoke to an utter loss of bodily control. His mind raced to figure out why or how this had happened to him. He obviously knew that the baby book was involved, but he hadn't thought it could do much to alter his own life; he wasn't even completely sure which errors would have done something like this. Shamefully, he knew he'd gone overboard last night, whenever he'd been rushing to tear down Roy's life in every way he could conceive. In that frenzy, he must have gotten sloppy and somehow implicated things about his own life. That wasn't a big deal within itself, because he'd seen how he could still edit the pages with some whiteout, but now he didn't even know where the book was! He thought the most obvious answer was that his mother had seen it and moved it, but if that were the case, then he would have thought that she would've mentioned it to him. A baby book of his cousin's humiliating life was something that wouldn't make sense for Zachary to have, so it would be something worth asking about, wouldn't it? Currently, the best case scenario was that she'd found it and taken it somewhere. The worst case scenario was that the book had somehow vanished as easily as it had first appeared, meaning that all of these changes would be impossible to undo. That was a chilling thought and he tried to put it out of his mind, but it was an undeniable possibility. Perhaps he'd been seen as abusing the power he'd been granted? Or there was some unspoken rule about altering his own history? It was hard to say. It wasn't like the baby book had come with any directions, or a fairy godmother figure that explained the purpose of it. The book had simply appeared on his desk one day! He'd only discovered the power it had by venting his frustrations into it, and at no point had he felt like he was doing something wrong. Though now that he was the one in a diaper, it was starting to become more clear that perhaps he'd been taking things too far. Zachary sat at the kitchen table with a crinkle and looked across at the boy who was already eating waffles with a little plastic fork. Roy was certainly younger than he'd been last night, reduced to a pudgy preschooler that was wearing a bulging onesie and a bib that'd already been dampened by his drool. Whenever Zachary came in, Roy had looked up, with syrup dripping from his chin, and he'd given his cousin a look that seemed mixed between surprise, anger, and amusement. Accordingly with what Zachary had written, Roy wasn't the brightest bulb any longer, but he still seemed aware enough to recognize that his own life had seriously changed again, and that Zachary looked like he'd gotten a dose of his own medicine. Even if the newfound diaper wasn't obvious, the sudden drop in age was undeniable. Demeanor was a big tell too; Zachary hadn't sauntered into the kitchen with the same smug attitude that he'd been carrying since this started, but had meandered in with slumped shoulders and a weary frown. "Hi Zachawy." Roy lisped plainly, suddenly squinting an eye as he belted out a sharp toot. The older boy cringed, desperately hoping that he wouldn't devolve into such a humiliating creature. "...Roy." He mumbled in response, looking back down at his plate and stabbing his fork into a piece of syrup-soaked waffle. Zach's mother put down a plastic cup of milk in front of his plate and gave him a gentle pat on the head. "You boys enjoy breakfast. The grownups are going to be right in the other room, okay? That means you need to watch your cousin, Zachy; let us know if you two need anything." She spoke to him like she was giving him a chance at responsiblity; she was condescending, unintentionally at least, while trying to boost his sense of self-esteem. It didn't come across as she wanted, since she was only giving Zachary the smallest quantity of power possible. "And remember what I said about being a role model for your cousin, okay? You can show him how you potty like a big boy after breakfast." Zachary's face got red at that; the mental imagery of what she was asking of him wasn't pretty. Did she really expect him to use the toilet with an audience? With Roy being the one who would be 'spectating' the 'example' being set, that also might mean a *training potty* instead of the normal toilet. Heck, with the strange transformation that his life had just undergone, it was possible that he'd be expected to use a toddler potty even if Roy wasn't here! It was still a little nebulous to Zachary, since he didn't have memories of the reality that had been created. Much like Roy, he was resigned to living a role that he had to improvise. Once his mother left the room, he could feel Roy's eyes on him more directly. "You got something you wanna say, pipsqueak?" "You liddle now, an' you got a diapee." It was a simple, yet powerful exchange. It succinctly summed up what had come from Zachary's hubris. "S-shut up, I...I didn't mean for this to happen." He groaned in response, "Only you were supposed to end up like this." Roy started to giggle, the dimwitted tyke unable to help himself; after all the haughty behavior that Zachary had been party to, and now things were finally turning against him. As he laughed, he started to fart in his diaper; loud bursts of muffled flatulence and gross plopping. If Zachary wasn't in such a similar position, then it would be his own turn to laugh, but instead he just cringed and lowered his head. After pooping the bed and waking up to a squishy bottom, he had concerns that he wouldn't be far behind in befouling himself while awake. After all, he was wearing a diaper instead of underwear, or even instead of a Pull-Up, which meant that accidents must still be very frequent for him in this new reality. "I'm n-not like you though. I might be little now, and maybe I am wearing a stupid diaper, but I'm not a dumb baby like you are." Zachary seethed, taking another bite of his breakfast. That actually wasn't as positive as he was making it out to be; Roy might be totally mushbrained and pint-sized, but that now worked in his favor, since nobody expected dignity out of him. He was just an oversized baby now, and people didn't mock babies for doing what came naturally. Zachary on the other hand, was going to be more heavily scrutinized for his immature and idiotic behavior. Zachary wrinkled his nose as the noxious fumes of the diaper drifted his way; from what he remembered about his own writing, Roy was an absurdly frequent pantspooper now, and this was but a sampling of what his company provided. Roy didn't seem to care about the stench at all, actually smiling at what he was doing. "Yoo nodda smawt baybee. Yoo...Mmmph...Hrrgnnn..." Zachary began, before having to pause to grunt and toot some more. A crackling came from the red-faced boy's bottom and he looked relieved as another big steamer crashed into his dirty diaper. "...Yoo dumm too." Roy was drooling down his chin, smiling and still releasing a few toots in the process. Zachary narrowed his eyes and pushed away his mostly finished plate. "Mommy! Roy POOPED!" The immature outburst felt natural to him now, though Roy didn't look offended or embarrassed by being called out. Roy was still in there, his memories and personality mostly untouched, but his IQ had been seriously destroyed by the actions taken in the book; his sense of shame and disgust were likely zeroed out by it. His mother and aunt both came back into the kitchen to respond to his outcry and the fumes made it obvious that Zachary hadn't been lying. Roy's mother picked the stinky boy up and peeled back his waistband to look inside. "Phew! That was a smelly one, wasn't it?" She cooed. Roy giggled and babbled, while Zachary got up from his chair with an irritated expression. His own mother stopped him in his tracks before he could go anywhere though and reminded him of the task she'd wanted of him from earlier. "Why don't you show your cousin how to potty like a big boy? Come on." An oversized training potty sat in the living room; it was a new feature of the furnishings, having been manifested during the same event that had reduced Zachary to this new pitiable form. It was bright yellow at its base, with an orange seat, and little ducks decorated the surface of the plastic. "I-I don't hafta go right now, m-mom..." He pathetically bemoaned, trying to wrench himself from the grasp she had on his hand. As if to prove him wrong, a boisterous trumpeting came from the back of his babypants, but it wasn't just bluster. While on the way to prove his competence, he'd shamefully let something solid slip out and get trapped between his buttcheeks and the padding. "Oh, honey...That didn't sound very good." His mother sighed, stopping him in front of the potty to take a look at the back of his diaper. She peeled the waistband out and peered down it to see her child's juvenile failing. "...Zachary! You couldn't have waited another minute? Or was that on purpose?" She sounded irritated with him, and he could feel his face getting hot. "N-no! It wasn't! I...I didn't mean to do that..." Exasperated, but not perturbed, she pulled his shorts down for him. "Knowing you, you're probably not done...Go ahead and sit down to finish up. At least Roy can get an idea of what you're supposed to do..." Before he could argue any further, she pushed down on his shoulders and forced him to sit on the training potty, with his diaper still around his waist. Roy had been situated on the floor near the potty, to watch, while he happily mucked around in his mushy pantload. "Zacky gonna make poddy in his diapee." Roy plainly announced to nobody in particular, though Zach could assume it was a statement directed at him. Just a means of rubbing salt in the wound. "That's right. Usually, he would pull his diaper down first, but we don't want to make a mess since it's already stinky." Roy gave a vacant stare in response to that, but Zachary knew that he was perfectly aware of what was going on, even if he was a little moron now. His shirt was damp with drool and messy with what he'd been nibbling on for breakfast, and his exposed diaper was in very poor shape, all of which pointed toward his diminished capacity; none of it was a ruse, but it certainly didn't tell the whole story. Another gurgling burst of gas came sputtering into the younger boy's dirty diaper and he leaned forward on the floor to let nature continue taking its course. If Zachary was about to use the potty as intended, then it would have served as an amusing contrast of toileting levels, but as it was, it just showed a sad symmetry of failures. As more poop exploded into Roy's oversized Huggies, which caused the loaded garment to swell even further, it became almost symbolic to Zachary. He'd been so bitter and resentful about the differences between him and his cousin, about how they were both treated, and that had led up to all of this. Zachary wanted to be treated as more capable and as more mature than Roy; for Roy to know what it felt like to be underestimated or coddled beyond reason. In that, Zachary had succeeded. As things now were, Roy had few expectations to live up to and would be treated in far more of an infantile way than he deserved. He may be stupid now, and functionally incontinent, but he'd always be aware of what he was supposed to be. Zachary would meanwhile be treated as more of a 'big kid' than Roy in all respects, but he'd be perpetually chastised for not living up to the expectations of his new existence. It was topsy-turvy. Now that Zachary needed to be a 'role-model', his parents were no longer attempting to hold back his development; the irony of course being that Zachary was no longer capable of reaching those goals. He simply cringed, watching Roy with a feeling of resignation; the tyke's diaper looked as if it was being used to smuggle a baker's dozen of baseballs, and he still hadn't finished. Zachary almost envied him in that moment, since nobody around Roy seemed to care about the humiliating thing he was doing. Roy's lowered intellect made him appreciate the tactile bliss of loading his pants, and he was too dim to feel much shame either, so he was in a perfect position to just enjoy himself. Meanwhile, Zachary had just been scolded for messing himself, and now he had to sit here in front of everyone and finishing befouling himself, whenever everyone knew he was supposed to be capable of keeping his pants clean. In this bitter mindset, Zachary had another southern rumble that snuck up on him; the sound of the toot reverberated his diaper and echoed within the hollow confines of the training potty. He could feel an urgency to evacuate his bowels, but he struggled to hold back the encroaching storm; he had awareness, but not control. A cramp made him double over on the toilet and his face scrunched up in discomfort. The pressure in his gut was immense, almost painful, and he gripped the sides of the potty to balance himself. "Hrrrgghhh!" He grunted loudly, almost involuntarily, as another fart blasted his seat. The adults in the room chuckled at the humiliating spectacle that he was putting on; nothing about it betrayed cruelty, but instead a condescending amusement, which was a common reaction to a small child doing something that everyone else could identify as mortifying. Nobody had any idea about the solidity of his ego, of his dignity and sense of shame; he may have regressed several years, and he was treated as even younger than that, but he ultimately a middle-schooler with a highly developed sense of preserving his own pride. Zachary's face reddened as he had to strain, his grunts becoming almost rhythmic; beads of sweat formed across his forehead, his eyes squeezing shut with every big push. Sitting on the toilet with a diaper on was actually far more restrictive to his bowel movement than he would have expected, and it felt as though he was having to work twice as hard for the same result he would have gotten by simply squatting. Zachary tilted forward and curled his toes; he was giving completely in to what his body was demanding of him. The firm mass he'd been working to expel finally rocketed into his seat, and behind it came a dirty deluge of semi-solid mush. Now that things had been moved along, there was no stopping the tidal wave that'd been unleashed. The high-velocity splattering echoed loudly and rudely in the training potty, though the interior of the bowl would remain completely spotless; the same couldn't be said for his formerly white diaper, which had taken to swelling to an absurd proportion, while taking on brown splotches in lumpy areas. The only relief that Zachary felt was the physical one that came with totally emptying himself. He couldn't think of a time in his life that he'd been half as embarrassed as this, especially while simultaneously feeling such a bodily peace. Wave after wave of magmatic poop filled his seat with noisy turbulence, until he could feel the mush pervading every inch of the interior of the garment. When he finally finished, with remnants of the explosion being found in lingering ripples of gas into the pile, he let out a hearty sigh of relief and slumped over on the potty. Roy had finished his own soiling about halfway through what Zachary had gotten up to, so he'd been happily watching the show. "Oh dear, we might need to get you bigger diapers..." His mother mused as she helped him stand up, his diaper sagging low and looking ready to burst. "I can show you the brand I get for Roy. They're meant for big messes...Must run in the family!" His aunt chuckled, already getting out the diaper bag to deal with her own smelly son. Zachary soon found himself laying on the floor, on a mat, right next to Roy. The boys would be getting their diapers changed, side by side, while their mothers playfully joked about who'd made a bigger mess in their pants. Roy was sucking on one of his toes, unable to deny that mushbrained side of himself, though he did appear as smug as he was capable of being now. It was but a sampling of what his new life would entail. This very plain morning, which could have been any morning, was indicative of the trajectory that Zachary would find himself on. Massively poopy diapers, no respect, and possibly no hope of improving. He still didn't know where the baby book had gone, but he suspected it wasn't going to be coming back. Maybe he had somehow written it out of existence by accidentally interjecting himself into its pages, causing some convoluted paradox that had meant he could never have gotten his hands on it. Regardless of where it had gone, all he could think about was how he wish it's never presented itself to him. As his diaper was untaped and his legs raised, so that his dirty butt could get wiped up, he realized just how much he'd taken for granted and how cruel he'd been to his cousin. Too late for that introspection now, though it'd be repeating itself during each and every diapee change he had to endure from this day forward.