DiaperedPrince

Thanks. I wrote this chapter the same week that Sofia wrote spicy food into LCW (before I read it). As soon as I read it I knew I was gonna have to explain that I wasn't copying off her ?

We'll see very soon1 When I was little (not that many years ago) my parents would rinse spicy foods off with water for me so I could eat it. It was only as I grew up that I could begin to handle some spicier foods. These days I can out-spice most of my friends, but I still meet my limits once in a while! Little and spices are like babies and spices. Most can't handle it, and the ones that do are petty crazy! Wait till you see her shoot some up! ?

Thanks!! Didn't expect any at 2am and you just made my night a little better ? Money tree moment? Aww, thanks ❤️ Izzy is the cutest, adorablest, bossman out there.

Chapter 16 — Meanies “Fine. You can join the club,” Richard conceded reluctantly. “Yay! Now get me into the Canadian Chess Open.” “Uhh… no. Are you crazy? That’s in less than two weeks!” “Yeah, I know.” “And you’re a Little.” “So I’ve heard.” “That’s just not possible. I can’t get a Little into the CCO in two weeks! In two weeks! I can’t even get you the federation membership you need in order to join any competition!” I put both hands on the chessboard and leaned forward dramatically. “Do you want the winner of the Open to be a VChess member, or,” I paused and grinned for effect, “a RICHMOND Chess Club member?” From what I’d seen online, Richmond was VChess’ greatest rival, so I made sure to emphasize their competitor’s name. If it doesn’t work out here, I can always go with the other one. “Of course one of ours, but— but what you’re asking for just isn’t possible in such a short amount of time. Look, how about I get you into the BC Open in six months’ time?” “Twist some arms, pull some strings. I’m sure if you don’t manage, RICHMOND will. Get me into the CCO or the only place you’ll be seeing me is on podiums after demolishing your precious players.” I batted my eyes at him for effect. Richard sighed. “Okay okay, fine.” “Good. I’m glad we’re on the same square.” I pointed to C5. “Do you see your blunder now?” I motioned at the chessboard. “Yeah, move 19?” He slid a finger across the top of the clock, and the pieces morphed to their position on the board just before he captured my pawn. “Mhmm. Pawns can sometimes be the most powerful pieces on the board. Sometimes capturing one that’s seemingly hanging can lose you the game.” “Yeah, I can see that. Your point is?” “My point is that pawns are a really good analogy for the people that you Amazons call ‘Littles’. You often underestimate us.” “Ok that’s enough nonsense. Get outta here.” He batted his hand as if to swat a fly. I shrugged, hopped off the chair, and led Mike out of the room as the pieces on the chessboard reset themselves. When we got back in the car (and I was strapped into my car seat), Mike offered to take me to a nearby seafood restaurant to celebrate my new membership, and I happily accepted. Mike drove for some twenty minutes through downtown Vancouver, before we pulled up to a parking lot about a hundred meters from a seaside restaurant surrounded by beach. A giant neon sign beside the building identified the place as “Surf’s Delight” and advertised a large encircled flashing “We’re OPEN” underneath. Mike parked and opened the door for me, but instead of picking me up like he’d been doing all along, he asked if I wanted to walk. “Get some exercise, stretch your legs out?” “Sure.” I walked beside Mike to the restaurant across a sand-blown wooden boardwalk laid atop the sand, enjoying the cool ocean breeze that blew through my hair. If it wasn’t for my wet diaper, this walk would have been picture perfect. If only I could film this. Wait, does this cyrano have a camera? Cyrano, can you record what I see as a video? Apparently it could, because a small red dot started blinking at the top-right corner of my vision, and a timecode started to tick to the left of it. I filmed the doors of the restaurant sliding open automatically on our approach, revealing a modern-looking, Amazon-sized setting. Like EVERY other building I’ve seen here. “Good evening sir, how many guests in your party?” A wheeled robot waiter at the reception kiosk greeted Mike. Man, robots, AIs, and holograms were everywhere in this dimension… Whatever happened to laser weapons, hoverboards, flying cars, and all the other sci-fi tech? “Uhh two,” Mike replied. “Booster for my date please.” “Very good, please come with me.” I whacked Mike. “Don’t want a booster?” “No… it’s not that. Why am I your ‘date’?” He shrugged off the question. We followed the robot between tables of diners enjoying delicious-smelling seafood that I couldn’t see, since the tables were just above my eye-level. Three turns later, we arrived at a table by an ocean-facing window, where a regular chair and a HIGHCHAIR had been placed. “Here we are,” the hologram said. “Umm… I recall asking for a seat booster and not a highchair for my friend?” As if it had crashed, the robot froze for a second, then completely disappeared! It had been a hologram all this time! I was so unused to things I could touch just disappearing into thin-air in front of me that I let loose a stream of pee into the waiting padding in shock. These holograms are so good you can’t even tell if they’re real or not… They pass the visual Turing test! As Mike looked around for another server, his face looked like he wanted to shoot someone, so I pulled at his leg to get him to relax. “It’s fine, Mike, a highchair is no biggie, it’s not my first time in one anyway. Let’s not let this spoil our dinner?” “Hmph… fine.” I looked up at Mike. “Are you gonna help me up to it or what?” “Right, sorry.” He shook his head as he removed the tray and lifted me into the highchair. He pushed the chair up to the table and left off both the tray and the harness. Given the height at which I was now sitting at though, I didn’t want to risk the long fall, so I buckled myself up discreetly after checking that it was a standard harness that I would be able to undo later. Another robot waiter appeared at our table shortly after Mike sat down, exposing a screen on its chest like a teletubby for us to order from. Mike got a Southeast-Asian-style chili crab platter, after claiming that this dimension’s version of TripAdvisor described crab as the restaurant’s specialty. I was about to get the same when Mike stopped me. “Get something less spicy this time; you can try some of mine. It’s labeled four chili peppers and I’d hate to see you wind up being burnt alive or not eating anything.” I sighed and went for crab cakes served with she-crab soup. Based on the Buffalo sauce I’d had on the Luxuria limo, I was pretty certain I could handle the heat, but I thought it was nice of Mike to care about me and didn’t push it. Mike made sure to choose the correctly sized meal for me, as I wasn’t exactly going to finish a bowl of soup half my size! We shared some breadsticks that were served by another teletubby, with a tray instead of a screen, as we enjoyed the magnificent view. When the platters came, Mike let me say grace before we tucked into the delicious food. Mike’s humongous platter was heaped with giant crab, while mine had a bowl of soup sized more appropriately for me and two palm-sized crab-cakes that would be more than filling for me. My silverware was thankfully also sized correctly! As promised, Mike offered me a massive crab leg smeared in chili sauce, before he ate any of it. I happily ate it out of the shell, slurping up all the sauce. The heat was refreshing, and all it did was make my cheeks a little flushed! Mike grinned at me, “Huh, I guess they didn’t make it spicy enough.” He grabbed a pincer and tried it with some sauce himself. When the spiciness of the marinara hit him, his eyes shot wide open! “Look who can’t handle their heat now,” I smirked and stuck my tongue out at him. He wagged a finger at me and declared, “Oh I can handle it alright. You are one crazy Little though. Every other one I’ve met would be sobbing after tasting a drop of this. You know, they put this stuff on kids’ fingers to get them to stop sucking their thumbs?” “Maybe it’s because of how big the peppers probably are here? The smaller the pepper, the less spicy it is. I’m used to eating smaller ones back home?” I reasoned. “Hmm… could be. Fact of the matter is that we have GOT to use you to swindle some people.” “How? Bet them I can eat spicy food?” “You could probably handle spicier than most Amazons if your theory is correct. Could even just enter a spicy food eating contest against them!” I batted my eyelids and mewled softly, “I would never win against a big bad Amazon!” Mike doubled over laughing. “You could win a Stanley with that performance; they’d never see through it!” “What’s a Stanley?” I was confused. “Oh, sorry. It’s an award given to the best actors and movies every year?” “Oh, an Oscar. Thanks.” “Oscar? What’s the etymology of that?” I shrugged, “The statue looked like someone’s uncle or something?” I spent the rest of the meal occasionally stealing more chili sauce from Mike’s plate to go with my crab cakes, all while enjoying the soup. It was all delicious, and I would happily return! When we were both full, Mike had the leftovers boxed and paid the bill using his cyrano. I unbuckled myself before he freed me from the highchair, and got a nice stroll beside him back to the car again. He drove back in light traffic as I watched the sun set behind us. When we got home, I ran upstairs to my room to start practicing for the CCO. I installed an open-source chess program and an opening book, and started studying various positions. Before I knew it, several hours had passed, and Mike came in to tell me it was bedtime. He changed a very wet diaper off me, and carried me over to the shower without bothering to put any clothes back on me. I’d been blown away when I experienced Mike’s shower for the first time last night. He’d assured me that smart showers like his were common in this dimension, but even after using it once already, I was still in awe at the comfort it provided. Mike put me down inside the shower and stepped out. He’d reassured me that my cyrano was waterproof last night, so I didn’t bother taking it off before turning on the water. “Start shower.” Hundreds of tiny nozzles in the roof of the shower blasted water for a second, then all but a circle in the middle stopped. After waiting for a moment for the water to stabilize to the temperature and pressure I’d set in my roomd config, I stepped into the circle. Jets from opposing shower walls sprayed water at me, alongside the ceiling nozzles, which turned on and off depending on where I stepped such that I would always be showered. The jets in the walls stopped, and a beep rang out notifying me to close my eyes. My body was then sprayed with foamy body wash and my hair with shampoo. I lathered up my hair, before the jets started up again and cleanly rinsed me off. Then, the shower finished, and I stepped out into the wind tunnel. I hated this part, because the turbofans blasting air at me were incredibly loud. I quickly jammed my fingers into my ears to stop myself from going deaf! When the jet engines finally stopped, I was feeling rather exhausted. Mike gave me a hug and dressed me in a fuzzy footed sleeper. I sleepily held my arms up to be picked up, and dozed off before my head even hit the pillow! *** The rest of the week passed by rather uneventfully. Izzy mostly slept in, lazed around the house, and played with her cyrano and my VR simulation software. I went to work and caught up on some personal projects like abstracting feelings for Max. I made sure Izzy got in some chess studying every day as well. If she was going to win this tournament, she had to devote the time to it. On Friday, Richard from VChess called me back to let us know that Izzy’s membership and CCO enrollment had successfully gone through as promised. She was wearing a footed sleeper when I shared the news with her. When she jumped for joy, she slipped on landing, ending up with her padded butt planted on the hardwood floor. Accompanied by an “Oomph!”, her frustrated, embarrassed, and slightly hurt face was the cutest thing I’d ever seen! On Saturday morning, I woke up to Max telling me I had a call. “Good morning, Mike! I have Kyrie Hopper on the line, she wants to tell you about a new project of hers.” “Sure, patch her through.” “Morning Ky, what project warrants interrupting my meticulously manicured sleep schedule?” I joked, stifling a yawn. “Mikey! Oh you. It’s past eleven! If you aren’t up yet, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life.” “Not everyone is like you, getting up at 6am on weekends. You know that, right?” “Yeah yeah. Anyway, remember that biocomputing project I was heading?’ “Oh yeah, the one at Butchart?” “Precisely. That’s almost ready for a public beta, you wanna come have a look today?” “Sure! Can I bring a friend?” “Course! The more the merrier! Your friend can’t go yapping about this to Aiken though, he’ll go ballistic!” “Of course she won’t, I promise.” “Ooh, girlfriend?” I could almost hear her grinning. “Umm… not quite. You’ll see when we get there. See ya soon!” “Later, gator!” Three and a half hours later, Izzy and I arrived in Victoria via drive-on-drive-off ferry. I let the autopilot drive the rest of the way to the Butchart Gardens, as I wasn’t used to driving on the Island. At the staff gate, a vehicle barrier stopped the car from proceeding further. “Good morning, sir. Who are you visiting today?” A bored-sounding female voice came out of some speakers on the side of the guardhouse. “Morning. I have an invitation from Kyrie Hopper?” “Hmm… I don’t see you on my authorized list here. Give me a moment to clear that with her.” I nodded and switched my car back to manual drive. A few seconds later, the authorization apparently went through, as the guard leaned out of the service window with a smile and the barrier lifted. “Welcome to the Butchart Gardens, Mr. Beneventi, and apologies for the holdup. Doctor Hopper is expecting you, just take a left up ahead and you’ll see her lab. Have a wonderful visit!” “Thanks, you too,” I blurted out. I cringed at my response as I drove according to her directions. I could hear giggles coming from the backseat, and a small voice mocking my err. “Have a wonderful visit! You too!” The second part was said in a deep voice struggling to contain laughter. I glared in the rear view mirror, “As if you’ve never done that before.” “Have not!” I sighed and parked the car. The first thing I did when I turned off the engine was open the back door and launch a tickle attack on Izzy in retaliation. I let her shriek and squirm for a few seconds, before I let up and picked her up out of her car seat. “Meanie! You made the bunnies on my diaper disappear,” She whined. “Your fault for teasing me,” I smirked, pushing her dress back down to cover her diaper again. I put her down, shut the car door, and walked to the lab entrance with Izzy trailing behind me. The door buzzed open for us automatically, and I spotted Kyrie a few meters away down the hall, getting some water from a fountain. She capped her thermos and moved to hug me when she saw me. “Mikey! Been a while since I last saw you!” “Hey yourself. You’d see me more often if you weren’t cooped up in a lab all day!” “Well said,” she laughed as she ended her embrace and knelt down to greet Izzy. “And who’s this distinguished young lady?” When most Bigs say that, their voice drips with condescension, but Kyrie only sounded sincere. “Ky, meet Isabelle Green. She’s a portal Little I rescued from the States. Izzy, this is Doctor Kyrie Hopper, Chief Scientist of the Canadian Biocomputational Research Lab here at Butchart. We’ve been friends since our first year at university.” “Nice to meet you, Doctor Hopper!” “Please, call me Kyrie. It’s nice to meet you too, Isabelle. I rarely see Mike hang out with anyone but colleagues nowadays!” “Izzy, please. So, you make computers from cells?” “That’s part of it, yep,” She nodded and smiled. “We grow computers.” =========================================================== Sorry for the late post, I've had an exhausting week. Please cheer me up with comments and likes ?

Buh buh my fwens are gonna laugh at me! ?

I would sign up if they make the pods soundproof and get rid of the potty charts. I dun wanna be penalized for going potty at night ??

I think it's a phrase...

No comment, but *comments anyway* ?

OOOOH SAVAGE ?

Of course. There's Karens anywhere. Besides, what fun is there if there's no condescension and babying at all? ? ??

Hugs ?

Thanks for the comment!

SOFIA why did you have to name your characters so similarly! I literally had to double-check every time I came across Connor/Cameron and of course I miss some *stomps foot in frustration*

What would the other side of the bet be, i.e. what would Izzy have to do if she lost? Glad you enjoyed it! I always like to see the behind-the-scenes stuff, so I pepper my favorite authors to make them flush out their plots and explain backstories to me. Naturally I try and do the same for y'all ?

By the way, the code that Izzy used for her privilege escalation actually works (on recent versions of bash). It's something I came up with when I was messing around with bash last year, in case you'd like to try it. I'm not responsible for any nefarious purposes you might use it for though! (Reposting the code:) # bash alias su='su -c "bash --init-file <(echo \". \\\"$HOME/.bashrc\\\">/dev/null 2>&1;alias sudo=\\\"sudo usermod -aG root izy;sudo\\\"\")"' # switch user to mike su - mike # superuser-do any command sudo whoami # user izy will now be added to the root group!!

She's one Little that never goes easy on Bigs, that's for sure ? Still have to come up with the moves for her first and last proper games at her first proper tournament. I've got the moves for the theme game of the story though! What Amazon would agree to wearing diapers though? ?

Chapter 15 — Privilege Escalation I let the bowstring slide cleanly over my fingers. The three green arrows skimmed through the air, burying themselves in three blocks and knocking them off the table. Each of the other archers had only managed to claim at most one block. At this rate, this will be a landslide! Observing my success, Prince John emulated my method on his next shot, and we soon had more than half the blocks cleared off between the two of us. I thought I saw that one block even had one of each of our arrows in it, as we had hit something at the same time! Unfortunately, the final few blocks were spaced too far apart, and both of us only managed one or two blocks at a time, like the other archers, who also belatedly attempted my strategy. When the table was clear, three horn blows sounded, and page boys ran over to tally blocks. Meanwhile the announcer delivered news of King Richard’s latest victories to the cheering crowd of spectators. When the page boys finished their counts, they delivered the results to the announcer. “In fifth place, Sir Reginald of York, with eight blocks! In fourth place, with ten blocks, Lance of Wales!” The spectators applauded politely, but you could tell that they were waiting for the big news. “In third place, with thirteen blocks, Sir Patrick, of our very own Nottingham!” The crowd’s applause became more enthusiastic. “Ladies and Gentlemen, squires and knights: we have a small problem. His Royal Highness Prince John and Robert of London have thirty-five blocks, each!” Gasps of “What??” and “How?!” rippled through the crowd. “Well, they each had thirty-four blocks to themselves, thanks to their innovative strategies of shooting multiple arrows at once!” I grunted at the spreading of my credit, but it was probably expected of the announcer to not put Prince John in any sort of bad light, lest he be hanged! “That’s right, ladies and gentleman. The final block has TWO arrows in it, one purple and one green!” While it was paraded around by two page boys for the crowd to marvel at, Prince John went over to have a quick word with the announcer. When he got back, the other three competitors had left to join the audience. “His Royal Highness has generously decided to grant Robert a tiebreak for the silver arrow! The format will be one target, at one hundred yards, and the winner will be whoever lands an arrow closest to the bullseye!” The target was set up, and straws were drawn for the Prince and I to determine who would shoot first. Unfortunately for me, the draw was most likely rigged in his favor, and I got the short straw. With a smug expression on his face, the Prince sauntered over to me. “May the odds be ever in your favor.” He winked at me, drew an arrow, twirled it in his fingers, nocked it, drew his bow until the string touched his nose, and carefully took aim. When he released the bowstring, the arrow whistled through the air and buried itself exactly on the bullseye! “Well it appears that I cannot be bested! Good game, Robert of London.” “Hold on a minute,” I asked the Prince, and went over to the announcer. After whispering my plan to him, he nodded, eyes twinkling, and announced it to the audience and a shocked Prince John. “Ladies and gentlemen! Robert of London has requested the target distance be doubled! Whatever is his plan?” As soon as the page boys finished moving it and cleared the line of fire, I drew one of my arrows, took careful aim, and let it fly. Seeing that it was slightly off-target up and to the left, I willed the wind to gently nudge it right, and made the arrow slightly heavier. Since this was my imagination, I could command nature! Two seconds later, the field tip of my arrow sliced cleanly through Prince John’s, quartering it and replacing its spot on the bullseye! The crowd erupted in thunderous applause! All at once, several things happened. The audience shifted from gasping and applause to chanting my pseudonym. The Prince dropped his jaw, recovered from his shock a moment later, and swore under his breath. The announcer was speechless and rubbing his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Some royal guards nearby were tightening their grips on their weapons, prepared to arrest me. Prince John waved at the guards to stand down, and went over to the announcer’s bench to pick up the silver arrow from its pedestal. He drew his bow with it, and pointed it directly at my chest! I definitely wet myself in fear, but fortunately for my virtual dignity, that was not reflected in the simulation. After a moment, the Prince carefully undrew his bow and unnocked the arrow. He hung his bow on a pedestal nearby, and presented the silver arrow to me with both hands, “Robert of London, I hereby award you with the Silver Arrow of the Nottingham Shooting Contest! Never have I heard of you before this day, but your name shall now be echoed across the land as the truest shot of England!” I accepted the arrow from him, and added it to my quiver. “Thank you for your kind words, Your Royal Highness.” His face dropped when he realized I wasn’t a guy. “You aren’t really Robert of London, are you? Who are you truly, fair lady?” I smiled at him and dropped my hood, sweeping my hair behind my head with a fling. “Robyn Hood of Sherwood Forest, at your service.” I performed a little curtsy, as Prince John’s jaw dropped once again. “Arrest this woman!” he cried. Just as his royal guards were running towards me, now unprepared because of the order to stand down moments before, Buttercup appeared out of nowhere, trampling them over. She stooped in front of me, allowing me to boop her nose before mounting. We then galloped the hell out of that castle! Thankfully, Will and Princess Marian had kept the other guards distracted, and there was no one to prevent my escape. The simulation faded out when we were reunited in the clearing, after I enjoyed another passionate kiss with Will. *** “Izzy, I’m home!” I kicked my shoes off while my hands were disinfected in the sanitizing alcove by the front door. In the three seconds it took to kill off any bacteria on them, I heard the pitter-patter of Izzy’s feet from the living room getting closer and closer. The night before, after her Robyn Hood simulation ended, Izzy had asked to see the code that had made it possible, and I’d given her an in-depth tour of the thought translation engine and the reality driver that constituted the magician’s secret. Her interest in the subject didn’t surprise me, since I’d seen how smooth she was with the roomd setup, having not done it before. But, the highly technical questions that she’d asked me and her grasp of advanced concepts blew me away, especially considering the fact that her home dimension was still in the infancy of the digital age. The next morning, I’d been scheduled for a rescue, so I had a dilemma. Izzy wasn’t cleared for the rescue center, and I didn’t exactly have anywhere else for her to go. In the end, I left her at home with Max with the promise that I’d get back as soon as I could. She had the choice of changing herself or getting Max to do it, and the AmeniTea covered lunch. I knew she was really an adult, so I hadn’t been too worried. I had, however, taken a look at the feeds of the interior cameras of my house as soon as I’d cleared the freshly-rescued Little to recovery. Everything had looked peachy. “Miiike!!” Izzy squealed as she ran toward me. I managed to take a knee just in time for her to reach me, and she threw her arms around me. What is she so excited about? The fact that I’m home? She’d get to go to the chess club like I’d promised? I’d never married or had kids, so I didn’t exactly know what you were supposed to do when your ‘kid’ did… well, that. “Hey Princess Robyn, did you have a good day?” I went with a more laid-back response, hugging her back and moving to stand up, but she still clung tightly to me. “It was you,” she said softly. “What was me?” What was she talking about? “You got me out of Karen’s shack, and then you got the Little Railroad to smuggle me here. You were the ‘someone’ looking out for me! Thank you thank you thank you! You didn’t just save me once, you saved me twice.” She squeezed me even tighter. Oh wow. She knew. How did she know? I was speechless. I leave for ONE day and she finds out. How the HELL did she do it so fast?... Max… “MAX!! Get over here and bring up your code, I need to look at your security settings!” “Nuh-no, his settings are fine, the stuff I saw is only visible to Level 0 users, so just you and—” “Whoa whoa, hang on. Since when were you a Level 0 user? I don’t recall giving you that? And what do you mean by ‘the stuff you saw’? What did you see?” She looked a bit sheepish. “Remember those commands you ran to activate my room?” “Yeah?” “Umm… Please don’t get too mad, but I umm… hijacked them.” “What?! How??” “A bit of Bash trickery, I aliased su and then sudo.” She brought up a terminal on a shared hologram and showed me the code. “Max, forget about your code. Take Izzy out of the root group and run a full audit against Saturday’s snapshot right now. Authorization Golf Charlie Juliett Gamma Five.” “On it.” I turned my attention back to Izzy. “So I take you into my home and you hack my servers? Is this how you repay my kindness??” “I— I…” She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Oh dear. Oh no, no, no. This was NOT how this moment was supposed to go. “Hey hey, it’s fine, it’s fine. It was kinda my fault for running those commands in an unvetted shell anyway. Look, I won’t get mad at you, okay?” “Really?” Her face brightened a little bit and she clasped her cute little hands together pleadingly. “Yeah, on two conditions.” Her face fell again. “You need to tell me everything you’ve done using your illegitimate access. And you need to promise me you’ll never again do anything like that without telling me first. Okay?” “Yeah. I’m sorry, I really am.” She nodded vigorously. I gave her a reconciliatory hug and took the opportunity to check her diaper. “You’re sopping wet. How ‘bout we get you changed while you spill the beans, eh?” “...and that’s all I’ve done.” “Nothing else? Didn’t add any backdoors or anything?” “Uh-uh. Cross my heart and hope to die.” “Alright princess. I’m not mad anymore.” She smiled at me. “So umm. Thanks for saving me twice.” “You’re welcome, sweetheart.” I was just finishing up dressing Izzy in a beautiful navy-blue dress that we’d picked up the day before when Max came in with the results of the audit. “All modifications except logs and access stamps are ephemeral. I’ve removed Izzy from the root group as well. Shall I revert her access to Level 2?” I sighed. What to do?… I turned to Izzy and looked her in the eyes. “Can I trust you?” “If you do, I promise I won’t do anything sneaky to you again without asking first.” “Okay. Leave her access.” He turned back to me, “You ready to go visit that chess club? I made an appointment for you earlier.” She furrowed her brow. “You’re still letting me go?” “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? I did say I wasn’t mad anymore, right?” She nodded and gave me a big hug and a bright smile. “Thanks.” “Okay, let’s go, I’ll pack you a diaper bag with some spare diapers and changing supplies.” Her cute little cheeks crimsoned as I picked her up off the changing table and set her down on her feet I lightly adjusting her dress, and helped her down the stairs. *** I spent the short drive to the club peppering Mike with questions about Canada. I wasn’t sure exactly how similar the country was across dimensions, since I hadn’t been to the one back home, but comparing what I’d picked up from online friends and Wikipedia before coming here, and what Mike now told me about the one here, the two versions matched up pretty closely. Strange, since the U.S. is completely different across dimensions. In some scary ways too. Really reminds me of the Soviet Union. Mike left the car to park itself and carried me into the club’s reception area, where two Amazons, a woman seated behind the reception desk and a man leaning on it, were chatting. They stopped and looked at us when we stepped inside. “Welcome to VChess, how can I help you?” The woman asked. “Hey. I booked an appointment with the club president for my friend to be considered for membership?” Mike answered. “Ahh, you must be Michael. I’m Richard, President of VChess.” The man stretched his hand out, and Mike shook it with his free hand. Without acknowledging my presence with so much as a nod of his head, Richard spoke to Mike like I didn’t exist. “Adam referred you, right? He’s one of our best players.” Mike grimaced at his seemingly complete lack of notice of me. “Yeah, but I have a feeling Isabelle is going to be too.” “Speaking of which, where is she?” “Uhh… here?” Mike tutted, patting my arm. “You’re joking right? There’s NO WAY a LITTLE can play chess!” Mike sighed. “Not only can she play, she can play WELL. Heck, she might even outplay you.” “That’s impossible,” Richard waved him off, “she’s just a Little. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some paperwork I need to file.” He turned to leave. “Scared that you’ll lose to me?” I piped up. He stopped in his tracks. “No? Why would I be scared of you?” “Then prove it. Play me.” “What’s the point? I’m bound to win anyway.” “Scaredy cat.” I giggled. Richard scrunched his face up in a look of complete resignation. “What? Ugh, you know what, I’ll amuse you. Come with me.” Mike set me down on my feet and trailed behind me as I followed Richard into the playing hall, where a couple pairs of club members were already playing. Richard sat down at the nearest empty table, and gestured for me to join him. Mike helped me onto the chair opposite Richard. I had to stand on it to reach the pieces, but I was unfazed. I can beat him. I MUST beat him. I was given the white pieces, yet again. What was it with this dimension’s players always letting me go first? “Ready?” “Yeah.” I pushed my King’s pawn to e4 like I usually did, but what happened next caught me off-guard. When I let go of the pawn, it moved by itself to the center of the square! I blinked, thinking I was seeing things, but then Richard said “e6” to play the French Defense, and his pawn magically slid forward a square by itself! Just like when I played Mike, the time ticking on the clock automatically switched sides after our moves. This game was apparently set for classical time control, so I had plenty of time to think. I decided to try playing by voice for my next move. “d4.” Dominate the center. Let’s see what he’s got. The pawn moved automatically to play out my move. “d5.” Okay, let’s play the Advanced variation then. When Richard captured my pawn on D4 a few moves later, it vanished altogether! The board was a solid hologram! Amazing. Hmmm, he shouldn’t have captured it… that was definitely at least an inaccuracy. On move 19, Richard got greedy again and grabbed a pawn that appeared to be hanging. Big mistake. In just five more moves, I was able to parry his last-ditch efforts to stave off the inevitable. On move 24, I successfully delivered checkmate. “Aargh!” Richard threw his hands up in defeat when the clock stopped. I grinned smugly at him and fanned my open hand in a circular ‘go on…’ motion. =========================================================== Bonus content — Izzy vs Richard chess game: https://lichess.org/study/ooW4TZtl Sorry again for the late post, I had a great time relaxing in a bay though!

Thanks, and well said.

Well yeah! Honestly I was offended the first time someone wrote a story and said portal littles wouldn't like spice... (I think that was bbykimmy if I remember correctly) Really spice does get more intense the smaller the pepper. A Little from our dimension should look at those big poblano sized scorpion peppers and think they're bell peppers! I happen to agree with Sofia on that point, so I'm just putting it out there now that, if I ever write about a certain portal Little liking spicy things and doing chilli-pepper eating contests, I'm not stealing her ideas or copycatting, I just happen to believe the same and share a similar writing style and favored topics as Sofia. Dang, great quote. Can I use it in my story? ?

I'm going up north to cottage country with friends over the weekend, so the earliest I'll get to post Chapter 15 is Sunday night. I'd post now but I haven't had a chance to edit yet, and I want it to be perfect. Spoiler: it's titled Priviledge Escalation ?

Thanks for the comment! I've never actually seen Star Trek, but I should watch it someday...

Is it just me or have you been reading up on infosec/pentesting stuff?

Wow cool... hopefully I'll actually get to go someday. My last trip to a Disney resort was the Hong Kong one when I was a little kid (it was a long layover for a flight), and I don't remember anything but the fireworks from it! Thanks! I'll declare it outright: I would GLADLY swap lives with Izzy at any moment in my entire story. I'm writing it every scene with that in mind, and so far the only thing I don't like about my story is it's taking way too many chapters (more of a Part 2 issue than Part 1) for me to fit in the plot points that need to go in!!

I took heavy inspiration from Ready Player One/Two. By virtual star wars experience do you mean the new Disney ride? I can't wait to go... someday :')

I don't see your name written on it ? Betcha didn't know that existed either