Champ Otter
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Daily Free-Write October 2, 2022: Love a Bunch Pt. 5
🕑 Added 2022-10-03 07:29:06 +0000 UTC*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
Ben woke up in the softly lit nursery with a start.
"Oh my gods what time is it? Did I miss my flight?"
When he sat up, he found himself nose to nose with Softheart bear.
"No ben, your car is waiting for you out front. Go ahead!"
Ben didn't quite remember he was in a VR environment until he went to rub his eyes and his hand bumped his visor. He immediately took it off and stuffed it in his tote with his other nursery goodies.
There was no time to take off his diaper. No time for anything but to throw on his the only dry clothes he had, grab his bag, and run.
It didn't matter that he had kiddish overalls on and a big waddly diaper bulge to boot. He needed to make that plane. He jumped in his car and sped toward the airport.
"Safety first, Ben!" came a voice in Ben's ear. "The speed limit is 50!"
"Sorry, Smart Bear," said Ben, taking his foot off the gas. "Wait, smart bear? How are you talking to me?"
We integrated with your cybernetic implants and systems. We can always be with you, now - on your phone, your watch, even your rental car! Isn't that great, Ben?"
"Guys," said Ben. "This isn't a game. Playtime was fun but the real world is much different than Love-A-Bunch."
"Oh, we know that, Ben," said Smart bear. "Since we got access to the internet through your smart devices, I did a lot of research and I understand perfectly."
"Smart bear," said Ben slowly, his stomach doing somersaults. "Just how much 'integrating' did you do?"
"Well, I did as much as was necessary to complete my research. Oh, you want to get into the right lane. Your turnoff for the airport is coming up."
"Oh, crap," said Ben, having been so distracted by the turn the conversation took that he almost missed his turnoff. "We'll talk about this later. If we ever get through the airport with you. I can't believe I'm taking contraband AI on my flight... I must be crazy..."
"Don't worry, Ben," said Smartbear, as Ben took the turnoff and made his way to the rental drop off by terminal 1. "You'll be safe. I've done my research."
"No offense," said Ben, "But you are just a child's program. I can't rely on your research."
"I'm not just a program," said Smart Bear. "I'm your friend. We all are. Trust us. We would never lead you astray. And if we had been there for you, we would have made sure you had a better life than what you got up to now."
Ben felt a pang in his chest. He could have used friends like them growing up.
"It's okay, Ben," said Smart Bear, who was monitoring Ben's emotional response on the full-body readout he saw from his smart watch and other feedback devices. "We're here now and we love you. You're going to be okay."
"I'd love to believe you," said Ben, wiping his eyes.
"Then believe us."
Ben parked his car, grabbed his bag, and handed the keys to the man in the booth, who looked at him strangely as he talked to himself. Ben tapped his ear and said, "Alright, well I'm here at the airport, we'll chat more later, sweetheart. Love you too!"
Once they were out of sight of the rental drop-off, he said, "Listen, I can't talk to you guys in the airport, okay? The less suspicious I look, the better."
Ben was incredibly nervous as he made his way through the line to check in for his ticket.
"Any checked bags?"
Ben shook his head. "Just carry-on," he said, lifting his tote, and showing off his backpack, which had his wet pants in it. He'd travelled light since he was only there to view the house and wanted to get home as soon as possible.
"That'll be an extra $100 to carry two bags on board."
"I can fit the tote in the backpack," he said, zipping up the bag and stuffing the tote in as best he could. He had to take out Stuffles and it fit. "So that should be free then, unless you charge extra for carrying Mr. Stuffles on board..."
The woman, smiled at the adorable sight of Ben with his teddy bear and shook his head. "No, sweetie, no extra charge. You have a nice day."
Ben cringed inwardly at the word 'sweetie', but he supposed he couldn't blame her for seeing him as a kid since he was wearing overalls and carrying a teddy. He was embarrassed, but it also gave him that warm fuzzy feeling - he felt cute, just as he had when he first put on the overalls and joined his friends in Love-A-Bunch.
If Ben had realized just how childish he looked with his obvious diaper-butt bulging out from behind, he'd have been much more embarrassed, but he couldn't see his behind, so he just walked away to the security station blissfully ignorant.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to open your bag."
That was the moment Ben's heart stopped.
"Is there a problem, officer?" he asked, as the imposing TSA agent glowered at him.
"All electronics must be scanned separately."
Ben gulped. Maybe they wouldn't know what it was. It was just a headset after all. It didn't even have to have anything loaded on it..."
He was visibly shaking as he put his phone, watch, and the contents of the nursery tote-bag into the bin. He blushed as a few diapers fell out as well, and quickly put them back in the bag, hoping the guard didn't notice. If he did, he didn't give any indication. He didn't even crack a smile as Ben set his backpack down beside the bin and waddled through the body scanner.
"We're going to have to check the area around your crotch. What are you wearing down there?" asked the woman who stood on the other side of the human scanner with a metal detection wand in hand.
"J-just my underwear," lied Ben, not wanting to say what he was really wearing under there.
"Underwear?"
"Yeah," he said, forcing a not very convincing smile. The woman was not impressed.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to drop your overalls."
"R-really?"
The woman lifted the walkie talkie to her mouth, and Ben quickly apologized and complied before she could call for backup. When she was what he was wearing her eyes went wide. When she saw that it had cute baby bear designs on it, she broke into a smile and put a hand up to her mouth to stop from giggling.
"Oh. Oh! Uh, hehe, sir, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to, uh, just do a manual check to make sure you're not hiding anything in there..."
"N-no problem," Ben squeaked. "If you could just... erm.. Hurry it up please."
He squeezed his eyes shut, as he heard - or imagined - the murmurs of all the people in the airport staring at him and talking about him. In reality, people were so wrapped up in their own concerns, that they didn't even noticed, but that's not to say that no one noticed, and Ben caught a few giggles and chuckles about the big baby standing there in his diaper with his overalls around his ankles.
"Alright, kiddo," said the woman, who's inspection was thankfully brief. "You can pull them back up. I'm sorry about that.
Ben cringed once more. Again with the childish nicknames. He just wanted to grab his things and go. Unfortunately, when he got to his bin, the TSA agent there held up the headset.
"Are you aware that this is contraband?" asked the man, holding up the headset. "It's old tech. We can't let you keep it."
"But they're my friends," said Ben, before he could think what he was saying. "I-I mean... I found it in the nursery..."
"Listen bud, we're going to have to ask you to come and have a sit in the side room over there. This is a very serious..."
He stopped and touched his ear, looked down at the bin which held the teddy bear and other nursery things. Then he called over the woman who had inspected Ben and conferred with her for a second before turning back to him and shaking his head, rubbing his temples. The woman nodded, and the man kind of squatted down a bit and handed Ben Mr. Stuffles.
"I'm sorry, kiddo, you probably didn't know any better, but you can't take your friends. They'll have to stay with us."
"Oh..." said Ben, feeling very sad, but also embarassed and relieved that the guard was treating him more as a kid than a criminal.
"Are you here all on your own, sweetie?" asked the woman.
Ben nodded, feeling more childish than ever.
"I saw he came with a diaper bag. Is he supposed to have a guardian accompanying him through the airport?"
"I don't know," said the man. "I didn't see anyone with him..."
"I can take care of myself," said Ben, but in his situation it sounded more like a petulant child's whine than a convincing and authoritative statement from an adult.
"Don't worry, sweetie, we know you can. I think we'd better have one go with you just in case." She turned toward the guard. "He needed a change pretty bad too. A guardian will take care of it. I know I'm not going to, even if he is a cutie."
"Yeah," said the man, taking off his hat and scratching his head. "Me neither. Parents these days. Just abandoning their kids at the airport like this and expecting others to take care of the rest." He sighed and shook his head. "Alright, kiddo, just wait here for a minute until your helper comes buy. Don't worry, you're not in trouble," he added.
Ben wanted to tell the man he knew that. He wanted to explain that he knew how to change himself, he just hadn't had a chance to before he had to leave, and in fact he didn't even need diapers in the first place, he was just doing it to humor his friends and lost track of bathroom needs in VR. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything to risk getting in trouble, so he had to keep his mouth shut. He watched as they tossed his headset in the Bin with all the other confiscated items for disposal.
"No!" he said, before covering his mouth. The guard looked down at him and frowned.
"I'm sorry, kiddo. Old toys like that aren't allowed. I'm sure your caretakers will get you a new toy later, okay?"
Ben hugged his Teddy, feeling like he had truly lost something special to him. He couldn't help it, he started crying.
"Aw, geez, no this," said the man. "Melinda, could you please deal with this until the guardian comes?"
"I'm working, too, you know. Just have him sit in the chair over there."
So Ben sat and waited, wondering if he might have a chance to sneak away when the two of them weren't looking.
Unfortunately, the guardian arrived pretty quickly, and took hold of the situation. It was a woman about his age, which was embarrassing enough, but when she was told about his potty needs, and shouldered what he now realized was his old diaper bag, he was red from head to toe.
"Come on, kiddo," she said Brightly, "Let's get you changed. You'll feel all better when you're in a nice dry diaper..."
What else could he do? He let her take him to the adult changing rooms, giving one last glance toward the bin where his friends would meet their final fate. It was a sad end to their story, and worse than they deserved, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
Comments
Keep reading. You didn't really think it was over, did you?
Joseph
Oh man! An initially embarrassing TSA check turns dreadfully horrible. I’m sad it’s ending here. They should have listened when he said he can’t have contraband. I suppose all good things must come to an end.
