Looking around, you couldn’t help but notice something that gave you mild pause for concern. Your friends and family, while clearly not hating being at Small Wonders, were visibly not as excited as you.
Your wife was staring around with wide eyes and an even bigger smile, looking like an adorable yet relatively clueless puppy. She’d go anywhere with you, but it was obvious everything so far was going over her head. Inez looked a bit bored, like she was semi-interested in everything but ultimately wasn’t feeling ‘challenged’ enough. Carmine was picking at her nails with an obvious expression of distaste, probably beginning to think she’d have a hard time screwing with you. And Anneli was excited, but you new your lazy friend would lose steam fast if something didn’t catch her attention.
To be fair, you couldn’t fully blame them for their behaviors. They weren’t tinies, and tinies were the people group who benefitted the most from the amazing work being done at Small Wonders. But it did sting, just a little bit, to see how even amongst your closest allies (and dangerous cousins), you were the most pro-affected person there by a mile.
So, you endeavored to do something to fix that.
“Tina, sorry to put you on the spot,” You began. “But is there any way that you can show us something…mind-blowing? Something amazing? Something we’ll never forget seeing?”
The beautiful, tanned redhead furrowed her brow for a second, before snapping her fingers. “Hell yeah, little lady! There’s 100% something I can show you and these other fine gals. I bet you’ll all really get a kick out of it!”
Anneli cracked her knuckles. “No shit? That sounds amazing!”
Carmine rolled her eyes. “How cool can it be? This place is so nerdy.”
Brinley gave Carmine a playful booty-bump (which your cousin blushed at). “Aw, play along, Carmine! This is super fun, and Allegra’s so excited to show us all around at all the cool toys and stuff!”
You faintly bristled at your wife describing pro-affected technology as ‘toys’, but like always you knew her heart was in the right place.
Anneli then cupped her fingers around you more securely, and your motely group set off after Tina, heading down one twisting hallway after another deeper into the Small Wonders lab. You gaped and gasped at all the scientists milling about, and the fleeting glimpses you caught of amazing equipment and inventions. You would’ve killed to spend a whole week touring this place, but you were still grateful for this one day you’d been granted.
Finally, Tina came to a stop before a heavy-looking door, and she rapped her knuckles on the metallic plating. The door then slid open (eliciting an excited giggle from your wife at the ‘spaceship door’). Tina then gestured for you all to head inside.
“Have fun, ladies.” Tina sketched a bow. “This is where I leave you, but my co-worker Sophie is inside. She’s…a bit manic, but her little science-goblin heart is in the right place. She’ll show you everything you’re looking for.” Tina gave a wink, and then sprinted off. Carmine and Anneli rather unsubtly watched the toned redhead’s buttocks pump in her tight attire as she ran down the hall.
Your group then entered the private lab you’d been led to, and the scientist who was apparently named Sophie was revealed.
She looked like she was around your age (as had Tina), but physically she was Tina’s dramatic opposite. She was of medium-height, was so pale she nearly seemed like a ghost, and had extremely long black hair that was a tangled mess. She had a sharp-featured face and frantic, analytical-looking eyes that were wild with energy. Her entire body was extremely slim and wiry, though she was really showing off her legs in an exceptionally short-hemmed miniskirt.
“Oh, hey! Tina pinged me about you guys!” Sophie grinned, her voice bursting with just a slight-touch of unhinged energy. “Ready to try out the AAE?”
Inez crossed her muscular arms across her abundant chest. “AAE? What’s that?”
Sophie let out an almost stereotypical mad scientist cackled. “Oh, geez, she didn’t even give you all a heads-up? That’s so funny!” Sophie’s smile widened. “It’s my pride and joy, my precious little baby. It’s the Affected Augmented Experience. The ultimate way to see life through a tiny’s eyes.”
Anneli gasped. “Wait, what? Augmented…like AR? Or VR?”
“Oh, it’s so much better than that.” Sophie waved her hand dismissively. “My tech is the stuff they write legends about. When you plug into my machine, it transmits your entire consciousness into the body of a tiny. It’s not cheap special effects or simple visual stimulus. It’s a full-body experience with every single sense. You can’t get this anywhere else.”
You were floored. “That…sounds incredible!”
“And I’ve made it even better in the past ten years!” Sophie gushed. “My first model put its users into blank-looking puppets. My second model could adapt to more human-looking synthetic bodies. But this newest version of the AAE? It literally synthetically 3D prints a new body modeled after your own form, using liquid-cooled Tinex! Isn’t that awesome! Now you can do the AAE in a form you’re comfortable with.” Sophie paused, then cackled again. “Well, size differentials aside, at least.”
Inez’s eyes widened. “How interesting. And the purpose of this AAE?”
“Educational, primarily.” Sophie explained. “In two ways. For one, we can have unaffected try it out and actually see life as a tiny for once. It’s an eye-opening experience. But if you ask me, the cooler educational purpose is for testing! Now we can run all sorts of tests to figure out new things about affected people and how their body’s work without asking real affected to submit themselves to…” Sophie smiled sheepishly. “…my sometimes extreme testing methods. But results demand tireless experiment, as I always say!”
Brinley clapped her hands together. “Wow, this all sounds so exciting! I, like, totally have no idea of anything you’ve just said, but it’s like a little game or something we can play? Right?”
Carmine let out a heavy sigh. “Science shit like this kinda goes over my head too. It sounds like one of those video game things you two play, yeah?” She jerked her head towards you and Anneli. “I’ve never really tried ‘em. Not my style.”
Sophie winked in a knowing way. “Well, I mean, it’s so much more than that. Wanna give it a try?”
“Do I need to use one of those gaming controller things?” Carmine asked.
“Nope!” Sophie grinned. “You just plug-in to my machine, and we hook a few wires up.”
“Uh huh. Whatever that means.” Carmine grumbled.
You raised your hand. “Real quick, Miss Sophie. This AAE thing…it sounds amazing. It’s safe, though? Right?”
“Perfectly!” Sophie clarified. “The previous models…had a few quirks. The first model could only restore one’s consciousness back to their proper body if they were in this room. The second model triggered a disconnect every hour, but extreme stress or stimulus could block the signal. We learned our lessons the first time after I sneezed on Rebecca and she got launched into the hallway, and promptly stepped on. Then the second time we learned our lesson after Tina spent…um…let’s say a rather long time inside of Mackenzie’s fat ass.”
Anneli snorted with laughter at Sophie’s unexpectedly uncouth verbiage.
Sophie blanched. “N-Not saying fat asses are a bad thing. Like yours, miss.” She gestured to Anneli. “Objectively, quite fetching, I’m sure. I don’t care about that sort of thing, science is all I need. Every waking hour of my life, and then some.” Sophie glanced down at her skinny frame. “My doctor keeps mentioning something about me being ‘dangerously underweight’, but that’s ridiculous. Who has time to eat when there’s more experiments to run.”
Everyone in your group stared blankly at the wild, manic inventor.
Sophie then smiled again. “Anyway, that aside, who wants to try out the AAE first? This new model works on a set timer, with no obstructions. Type in the length of the experiment, and it’ll come to an immediate end as soon as the timer ends! Simple as that!” Sophie pointed at the back wall, filled with monitors. “And we’ve got generator backups on top of backups, since, you know, you don’t want to disconnect suddenly during the experiment. Could irreparably…with your conscious…yeah, don’t do that.” Sophie kind of awkwardly trailed off.
“Also,” Sophie continued. “We’ve got two different obstacle courses for you to try out in your new tiny bodies. An easy one, and a hard one. Should be fun!”
You glanced around at your family and friends. You saw Brinley’s vapid but happy smile, Anneli’s eager cockiness, Inez’s muted interest, and Carmine’s vague boredom. Honestly, the chance to see any of them as a tiny for even a sliver of time was irresistibly tempting. Maybe you could actually help them individually to see life through your eyes more clearly!
Decision reached, you pointed out your hand…
1) You select Brinley to go first, and your wife happily gets plugged in.
2) You select Anneli to go first, and your best friend eagerly suits up.
3) You select Inez to go first, daring her to see if your life is really so ‘easy’, and you trigger her competitive need to prove herself strong. She gets plugged in.
4) You select Carmine to go first, subtly manipulating her into not fully realizing what she’s signing up for. You feel a bit guilty doing so, but if it’ll help convert Carmine into a better person, it’s worth it in your book. She gets plugged in.
5) You point at everyone, all at once. Why not have your entire group try out living life as a tiny simultaneously?
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
