✅ Softlocked

Part 5

Bocce leaned against the railing, and watched people doing their best. There was a thrill in coming out to the stadium that nothing else compared to, but it still brought her down every time she thought about playing herself. They were watching the instance volleyball championships now, and she remembered that only six months before she'd been hoping that she would qualify for a team this time around. She hadn't made it, and had thought that with the cost savings from her free trial she might be able to afford some muscle augments before next year, or even a trial of a personal physics module to help her perform better.

Next year didn't look likely now. Even if she could get control of her body, she was way too short. And she didn't look the part either; dressed now in an outfit that was almost entirely lacy frills, and a skirt that made no effort to hide that she was back in diapers. She felt so helpless, and she hated that she had to depend on Noelle for the simplest things. But each day she spent in this new body reminded her that she really was just a baby again. She couldn't feed herself; couldn't even hold a spoon without focusing her full attention on moving each muscle individually. Sometimes she could walk, but only for a few steps. And there was no hope she would be able to control a ball that was probably waist-high to her now, when she couldn't even pick up her toys with any degree of reliability.

But she wasn't upset. That was the weirdest thing. For years now, she had focused every moment of her life on trying to get better. She would practise more, and every game was about spotting her weak points and trying to do better. When she did any other sport, her focus was always on what she could learn from it, and how to make the best use of a meagre couple of experience points. Even watching other competitors had become a chore, forcing herself to watch their movements in the hope of spotting some trick, some new technique that she could learn to improve on her own skills.

That was the big difference now. She could stare at the game, and guess whether the red or green teams were winning. It was hard to make out any details, as it seemed her eyes had been downgraded along with everything else. But in the centre of her thoughts was the knowledge that her muscles weren't strong enough to jump like that; her hands weren't coordinated enough; and she simply wasn't big enough to handle the ball. She didn't need to learn new skills from the champions, because she was so far from being able to use them. And somehow that meant that watching a match could be fun again. She couldn't gain anything from it but the excitement, and that realisation joined a lot of other thoughts in the back of her mind saying that this wouldn't be too bad. This wasn't what she had expected, but somehow she'd found a way to enjoy watching the game again, and any time she tried to get angry about the misunderstandings that had led her here, she found herself seeing the positives.

Okay, there were positives. And out on the court, one of the players had just leapt right over a teammate to spike the ball straight into the ground on the other side of the net. The move was so unexpected that Bocce was overwhelmed by excitement, and found herself jumping up and down, cheering along with the rest of the crowd. She would never be able to pull off something like that, unless she decided to be a kangaroo in eight years, but it was a nice little fantasy.

The little mink was enthralled by the match. Even more than she would have been in previous years. So it wasn't until the action ended that she turned around to check that Noelle was still beside her. And she wasn't, but she was only a few steps away, talking on her phone. Bocce could guess what the call was about; Noelle had spent the last couple of days with an almost-unnatural level of focus, while Bocce allowed herself to be distracted from all the things she could be stressing over. Still, the game had finished now and Bocce couldn't think of anything to do for the next few minutes other than asking her friend what they were going to do next. She turned around, looked down at her feet, and took one careful step towards where Noelle was standing. As soon as she moved, she felt a wave of warmth as her bladder released. But she was in a diaper now, and she told herself that it didn't matter too much. If she couldn't stop it happening yet, then she would have to get used to the feeling.