Kat5

Finally made a bit of time to catch up. Things are not going well at Emerson! Some group is going to war with the littles again. And this time they're out to go nuclear. Also: hacking into a conversation involving a member of the Supreme Court is ... a choice. Forget everything going on with the college, if the ABI found out, they'd come through like napalm, leaving nothing in their wake. Great story, and I look forward to more!

One eye halfway works. I think that I'm required to wear a victorian dress and carry a lace umbrella if I get an old fashioned opera spectacle?

It's apparently not going to get better. Listen, in his situation, I would 100% torment Bigs by trying to get them to drink my Spriten Up.

I'd like to apologize for the delay. It's difficult to see to type lately. But I'm working on it! What if I told you that Steve gets a wife in the spring? Well, it was his naptime when the Karen showed up for the inspection. And she didn't make him fall asleep, she just made him have the milk. (Which he does need, as it helps regulate his mood. And he's getting cranky.) And finally: You have to admit: her logic may be entirely one sided, but in typical Amazon fashion, it is completely flawless/inarguable given the information she has to work with.

Chapter Fifty Nine John sat in the booster seat, irritably pulling at the lap belt holding him in place. After everything that he’d been through today, the last thing that he wanted was to feel like a baby. That LPS woman had pretty well spoiled what little patience that he usually had for the baby treatment. As MeMaw put a bowl filled with little cubes of honeydew melon in front of him, he looked for a fork, but there wasn’t one to be found. “MeMaw? Fork?” he asked. But as his toddler cup was placed in front of him, she said “These are finger food, you just eat up and I’ll fix you a drink that Nana Claire said you would like!” Rolling his eye, admittedly still just irritated with the babying treatment, he picked up a cube of honeydew melon and looked at it suspiciously. Fully expecting to like it just because Nana Claire said he would made him even more irritable, but he took a bite anyway. Oh that was oh so slightly sweet, cold from the fridge and the texture was -just- right. Not realizing that he’d closed his eyes until he opened them, he was MeMaw waggling his toddler cup at him expectantly. So without even bothering to argue, he took the cup from her and took a sip. It was Spriten Up. John stared at the cup and blinked. From his left he heard “What’s the matter, do you not like it?” “No, no. I absolutely like it. It tastes like home, in a way.” was all he could think to say without paying any attention. Nana Claire now had not one, but two bigs buying the same inter dimensional beverage for one little. And while he had no way of knowing how much it cost, and there was no way any of the bigs were about to share that knowledge with him, it had to at least cost them something. And he was just one little. If everyone in this town went to Nana Claire for stuff for their littles ... Nana Claire is VERY good at her job. Blinking a few times as his brain caught up, he took another pull from the straw and smiled up at MeMaw as a plan came to him. “Oh! MeMaw?” She immediately smiled back at him and asked “Yes, sweety?” His smile only grew wider as he answered “You know, MeMaw, this drink reminds me of home. Would you like to try some of it? I want you to know what it’s like where I’m from!” Completely unaware of what was about to happen, MeMaw gave him a big kiss on the forehead before turning to go to the kitchen. While she was gone, John looked over at Mom. She had obviously heard the conversation, because she stood there by the couch with a shocked look with both of her eyebrows up. John just smiled at her until MeMaw came back with a bit of Spriten Up in a glass for herself. She held it up and John grabbed his cup and held his up too. After they clinked his cup and her glass, he took a drink from his straw while he watched MeMaw take a great bit swig of Spriten Up at the same time. There was a slightly delayed reaction until her left eye clamped shut, he right eyebrow twitched a bit before her right eye started blinking a little. MeMaw did a slight full body shudder as her head started twitching slightly side to side like some sort of robot glitching out. MeMaw finally managed to move her hand to put the glass down on the counter, but that was only so that she could make a pawing motion at the air for a moment. Then her hands both balled up into a fist and he could see her forcing herself to swallow the mouthful of Spriten Up. After a few moments, she pinched the bridge of her nose and he could just barely make out her mumbling “Why is it in my sinuses. HOW is it in my sinuses. Goddess spare me I can taste my sinuses.” Finally recovering a bit, MeMaw turned around and looked at John who was just smiling as he took another drink for himself. Of course, he held out the cup and offered her another drink. “It’s good, right? Would you like some more?” MeMaw was obviously trying to look mad, but with John looking like an innocent smiling little, she just couldn’t. “No sweety, why don’t we just save some and you can share it with your PaPaw next week?” Johns grin grew even wider as he heard Mommy behind her chime in. “Mom! Will dad even survive that, he has less tolerance for sweet things than we do?” MeMaw patted Mommy on the shoulder and explained “After we left your Father made up all sorts of stories about why you can’t plant the lettuce I want, complete with making up international articles with convincing sounding reference numbers and just kept making it up the entire way home. He’ll survive.” They both stopped to look at John. John, for his part, just ate another cube of Honeydew melon. They knew what he just did on purpose. But if they weren’t going to call him out on it, he was just going to eat his snack and play innocent. He’s just a little, after all. John was slowly catching on to how this world works. After finishing his bowl of melon cubes, MeMaw picked him up and carried him to the bathroom and put him on the counter and ran water. Without thinking about it, she washed and dried his hands for him. “MeMaw, I can do it.” “I know sweety, but I want to help you.” With a half sigh, half growl, he complained “MeMaw, I just … I don’t want … MeMaw, I don’t want to feel like a baby right now, okay?” Suddenly MeMaw stopped and looked him in the eyes without speaking for a few moments before she nodded. “You know, sometimes after a rough inspection, littles need a bit of time to calm back down. Usually after the inspection we are gone and we don’t see it directly. You are still a little, so you DO still have to accept some help. But maybe we can talk about this for a bit.” With a huff, he said point blank “MeMaw, you said I’m a toddler. I’m still an adult.” Slowly nodding for a moment, she picked him up and got him up so his butt was on her arm as she spoke softly to him. “John, this isn’t the world you are used to. And quite frankly, most littles here aren’t as mature as you are. And even then you still need to learn to accept what you can’t change about this world.” Letting his head slump onto her shoulder, he kept complaining “But I’m an adult. I’m not a toddler. I can work, and cook, and mow the grass, and stock shelves, and do everything you can. Just … smaller.” Feeling her cheek on top of his head was comforting, but not reassuring in this moment. “John. Sweety. Littles … I don’t know how to put this gently. Did you know that we have portals and trade with three dimensions of littles?” Looking up now, he asked “Wh… what? Three dimensions of littles?” She simply nodded and explained “And those are only the ones we trade with. There are a few more that … Well let’s just say that those places are not very nice. Every one of them are run by littles.” John didn’t really notice that MeMaw had started walking around and patting his butt trying to keep him comforted. “And us Bigs have been watching all these littles from different dimensions and then there’s the littles here that grow up and then sometimes they … grow back down. And we love them all the more with every passing day.” With that, she lifted him up and gently bumped her forehead against his. “I know that this might be a bit more than you’re ready to digest. But while I know our world isn’t perfect, we don’t let littles go hungry and homeless here. Does that happen in your dimension?” John stammered a bit. This was the most direct and maturely that anyone had addressed him the entire time he was in this dimension. “Well … uhhh…. Yeah. It does, but what does that …” She stopped him with one finger to his lips as she answered “You are one little in a wide world of Bigs and Littles. You don’t know the way things are here, and that’s perfectly fine. Please just try to accept that we know what this world is like, and we are going to do what’s best for you in it. You may not understand it, and honestly you don’t need to understand all of it. You just have to trust us. Okay?” All he could do was nod silently along. How do you respond to being told all of that? “Now. I hate to spoil this moment, but it’s time for you trust me now.” And with him on her arm, he was carried as she went to the fridge and got out a bottle of milk, ready and waiting. As she carried him to the rocking chair, he caught on to what was happening and started trying to squirm to get down. By the time she was sitting down and getting a blanket to wrap him up in he was trying to push her arms away. “MeMaw, I don’t want a nap!” He protested. “Sweety, you don’t have to take a nap right now, you need some milk. It’s nutritious, and you’ll feel better. You can nap later.” While she looped the blanket over him, he tried to roll to get loose, but she simply wrapped him up like he was a toddler burrito. “MeMaw, no!” While he squirmed and tried to somehow wriggle out of the top of the swaddle he was stuck in, she kissed him on the cheek and held the bottle to his lips. He tried to protest again “NO-umpphh” but the nipple of the bottle went right into his mouth. He tried to refuse to drink, but with a little squeeze of the bottle a few drops went into his mouth and he started to swallow and suckle on the nipple seemingly on autopilot. Without knowing how long it was taking to drain the bottle, he tried to do anything he could to stay awake while he got halfway through the bottle. He tried wriggling what little he could. He tried moving his toes. John patently refused to fall asleep right there in her arms and on her terms. As he finished the bottle, his eyelids felt like they were made of lead when he was slid up onto a shoulder and his back was patted in just the right spot to make him give off a soft burp. Pulled back around and resting against MeMaws chest, he felt a pacifier against his lips and gave in to take it. And there, with a belly full of milk, a pacifier in his mouth, and swaddled up nice and warm as the slow motion from the rocking chair moved him back and forth, John dozed off.

Im probably not a good source of advice, being a medium quality writer, but I like what you're doing here and want only to encourage you to keep creating! Sharing our creations using imagination and writing is one of the greatest gifts that we littles can have!

I break the fourth wall in the comments where I admit that the main character is the dog pretty frequently.

Thank you very kindly! I consider that to be high praise! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I think MeMaw had more fun just dramatically kissing all over the side of his face and tickling him instead of answering. Grandma even refused to elaborate on her history or what all that was about. And if I may get away with being so direct... Karan may be a horrible person from our point of view. (She is) But from her point of view, reducing littles to infants from day one by sheer force makes them 'adapt' (i.e. give up fighting) sooner, and to her that is a sign of love. She wants us all to be reduced to nonverbal babies unable to walk because she loves us. Let that simmer for a bit as an expression of how she views us.

This was surprisingly wholesome! I enjoyed it, thank you.

I've been so buried in RL that I'm just wildly behind on reading stories.

Don't do it, Jack! Stay at the tier you're in! (Or more realistically l: good luck delaying things as long as you can!)

Remember that Amanda is one of the best among her kind. But she's still an Amazon, and that's why the point of view feels different, and how she thinks of him as an actual toddler more than a vertically challenged adult. The best that one of us could hope for in that situation, but some things just seem so normal that them happening doesn't even register. You know like subtly training a little to use a pack for self soothing. A little somehow winds up addicted to the calming effect of the pacy? It keeps them calm. They were meant to have it. And if that pack makes the little have a childish lisp when its in their mouth? Well, that's just how littles wind up sounding. Toddlers in diapers waddle, they have temper problems as they learn boundaries, they have speech problems, and they still love cuddles when they're sleepy. From Amanda's point of view what else could you possibly see right now but a toddler?

Yep! MeMaw knows whar she's about! I'm glad that you're enjoying this little slice of life story about growing into this dimension and learning how to adjust to this world in a little different pace. I have my own headcannon that I cannot shake that Amazon's are able to grow so big and strong due to a combination of great nutrient density and lower atmospheric pressure, much like how the atmospheric pressure on earth was (at least when I studied it before this) believed to have had a lower atmospheric pressure many millions of years ago. Not a lot, but reading that study stuck with me and here we are. So higher nutrient density helps them evolve to grow bigger and stronger, and as a result, the same things that give each food their taste are just ... more packed. At least, that's my headcannon for their size. A mixture of ancient earth history and logical extrapolation. If you want, I can ask the author if they're going to get along. *wink wink* Real life and I have not had a healthy relationship lately, if I'm honest. But I'm trying my best.

Chapter Fifty Eight John felt so much relief the moment MeMaw walked through the door. And when she picked him up, he knew that this other lady would have to deal with -HER- before she could keep being mean and degrading to him. He felt her chin on top of his head as she whispered “I’m happy to see you, too.” Mommy walked over and started to say “Hi Mom, I didn’t get to read your mes…” But she was interrupted by Karen. “Margaret!? What are you doing here, this is my inspection. You know you can’t interfere with another LPS agents inspection.” The tone alone made John tense up and bite down on the pacy in his mouth nervously. “Well, Karen” MeMaw spoke softly while stroking his back “If you recall, I retired.” Behind him he heard her say suspiciously “Then what brings you so far out of town?” John felt himself being shuffled up with an arm under his butt. When he was face to face with MeMaw she made a big shoe of kissing him on the cheek and then rotating him to show him off to Karen. “Well. Karen. This is Thursday. And every Thursday I come babysit my grandson while my daughter works her in her garden.” MeMaw had a threatening tone. John felt relieved that tone was aimed at someone other than him. Looking over his shoulder at Karen, he could see her jaw clenching slightly, even from across the room. He briefly wondered if small details were easier for him to see because they were all bigger than him. “Well Margaret, I must insist that you bring him back over here so that we can finish his evaluation.” Looking up now, he could see that MeMaw had a smirk. “Of course Karen. You know I would never interfere with an evaluation. Those are the pillar of our process.” With a bit of bounce in her step as she crossed the distance to the coffee table and she sat down directly on the floor with him in her lap facing the table. Karen gave an audible “HMMPH.” as she sat back down on the couch facing the table. Karen started to reach into her diaper bag for something, but frozen when MeMaw started talking. She already seemed annoyed. MeMaw asked “So how far have you gotten in his evaluation?” Karen stopped with her hand still in the diaper bag as she answered with what John thought must be her most official ‘office tone’: “If you must know, he has done the first part of his evaluation, had his physical inspection, and is almost done with the second part. He does not pass every bar for maturity, since he falls short on two metrics. We were in the middle of reading comprehension when you got here.” As Karen answered, MeMaw leaned over John to peek at the paper he had started writing on. He could tell that she knew what he was about to write as an insult to her when she chuckled and said over his head: “Well I think he’s proven he’s literate enough. What’s left?” With a frustrated sounding sigh, Karen responded “For his exam I will be satisfied with the coordination to stand up and do one toddler level puzzle at the same time.” Feeling her lean down and rest her chin on his head for a moment, he then felt her sit with her back perfectly upright. “Karen.” She started. “What if he sits on my lap while doing a puzzle, and you and he have a little race?” John could see her eyebrows scrunch up as she said “Margaret, no little can do a puzzle in even ten times as long as a big.” “Well.” MeMaw started, but then she left a big pause as she seemed to fake thinking about it. “What if he can do the same puzzle in, say … four time as long as it takes you? Would you then write him down as toddler level and … hmmm… give a dog treat to the border collie outside that’s still staring at you?” “Margaret, you know very well that I don’t like dogs one tiny bit.” Came her retort. “So you don’t think you can do it.” Oh MeMaw seemed to know how to push her buttons, because Karen looked like she was done with MeMaw already. “Fine! I’ll time him doing the puzzle, and then you time me doing the same childish puzzle. And when I win, you have to leave, with that dog, so that I can finish the outdoor inspection in peace. Deal?” The two women shook hands over his head. But when Karen pulled the puzzle out of her diaper bag, John felt himself being lifted onto his feet and MeMaw whispered “Go get your middle sized puzzle, and be quick.” And he did not even hesitate, he started off into a waddle/run to the play mat where the plastic box she had brought on her first visit. Once he hit the play mat he immediately toppled onto his knees and had to crawl across the play mat. It was entirely embarrassing, but he didn’t even slow down, he speed crawled like he knew what he was doing and opened the big plastic toy box quickly. Grabbing the puzzle he was sent for, he sat it on the play mat and pushed it ahead of him as he crawled. When he made it off of the mat, he didn’t even get to finish standing up. MeMaw picked him up, he picked the puzzle up, and he was pivoted up and into her lap. John looked at Karen and instantly looked confused. She was holding the exact same box he was. Karen looked exactly as confused as John did. “Margaret, what are you trying to pull here?” she asked, honestly suspicious. As MeMaw opened up the box for John, she just shook her head and replied “Not pulling anything. You can even swap puzzles with him if you would like.” With a deep sigh, Karen fiddled with her phone and set up a timer. Karen looked directly into his eyes, and he felt like his throat was suddenly dry in her gaze as she asked him flatly: “Are you ready, little boy?” “Ummm… Can … May I furn my piefes right fide up before we far...sfart?” the training pacy subtly affecting his speech. With a simple nod, she said “Certainly, that seems a small enough handicap.” Oh, he was nervous. There’s no way he could be as fast as a Big. He poured the pieces out and scooted them a bit to his right and flipped them all face up as fast as he could. He was getting more nervous by the second until he heard MeMaw whisper into his ear. “You don’t have to beat her, and you have plenty of time. But if you can tie her, it’ll mess her up for months. You’ll do this just fine.” Somehow her little quiet pep talk in his ear calmed him down. She even pushed his pacy in and out a bit to get him sucking on it, and that made him feel even more calm for reasons he couldn’t understand. Looking down at all the pieces, he realized that he remembered the picture on the box and knew where they all went. He stared at the box for five full seconds until Karen started counting down. “Three.” John nodded. “Two.” Then he just reached over and slid the box completely off the table so it wouldn’t distract him. In a moment of impulse he decided he didn’t want it there. “Go.” With a start he realized that he’d missed the one because he was thinking and he just started reaching with one hand and then the other and putting them roughly where they went. He’d already done this puzzle, and even though it was a hundred and twenty five pieces, they were kind of big and easy to grab. The bottom was snapped together and he didn’t dare look up to see what the woman was doing. One side was together and he was biting down on the pacy in his mouth as he concentrated. The top was done and the other side followed. John got a bit frustrated as he dropped a couple of pieces, but after roughly slapping them in place, he kept going. With the last two pieces in his hand, and he was bringing his hands down to slap them in place as he heard: “Done!” John froze and looked up with is hands inches from the puzzle as he saw that she had already done it. With a huff, he glumly put the last two pieces in, having in his own mind lost the race that he was was supposed to do his best in by several seconds. Feeling dejected, he started trying to turn to hug MeMaw around her ribs when MeMaw lifted him up out of her lap and got her onto her arm. “Well Karen, that was a lot faster than four times as long as it took you.” When he looked over at Karen, for some reason she looked flabbergasted. Looking up at MeMaw now, who had a big toothy grin, and then over to his Mommy, who had her phone out to record it … “But … I wost” John said in the forced lisp around the ‘training pacy’ that he still hadn’t put together what it was training him to do. Karen exclaimed “He’s Eidetic!!” MeMaw simply nodded with all the smugness of a proud Grandparent. “MmHmm.” “He has the social challenges … no brain mouth filter … he … He drew that picture of the back yard!” Again, MeMaw simply answered “MmHmm” “Margaret, you know perfectly well that he falls short by two metrics. Especially his size. He’s TINY!” Looking up, John saw her nod as she answered. “And a little is allowed to fall short by exactly two metrics, so long as they excel in other areas.” “You. Knew.” Karen said accusingly. MeMaw didn’t even answer her, she simply picked John up and just started kissing up and down the left side of his face dramatically and tickling him under his ribs, causing him to giggle and scrunch up. When the assault was over, he looked up at MeMaw and then over to Karen, who was writing in her notepad angrily. As she finished and started shoving everything she had back into her diaper bag, MeMaw seemed to want to goad her on. “So Karen, as you can see, you can’t judge a little by their diaper. I told you when I trained you ten years ago that littles each deserve a chance.” With her bag now packed, Karen stood up and said curtly “I know what you taught me. But I still say that you went too easy on too many littles. Every single study has shown that keeping littles in crawler diapers during the day, and newborn diapers at night for the first six months in our dimension makes them acclimate more effectively. That way they learn how to rely on us quickly, and it breaks those pesky rebellious impulses before they can even form. Surely, helping them adapt is the most effective expression of love.” MeMaw watched Karen make a line for the door when she stopped her. “Karen.” MeMaw said it with some weight to her voice. Turning to look, Karen asked curtly: “What?” Suddenly MeMaw’s voice was just dripping with sweetness. “Don’t forget that you promised to feed a treat to the dog.” Mommy needed no prompting, she hustled her way into the kitchen and came back with one of the dental treats shaped like a bone. Karen looked through the glass door at Xerxes who was -still- staring at her. As she approached the door, he stood up and his lips curled back a bit to show his teeth. No sound came out of the dog, just the warning. MeMaw carried John over and gave him a pat on the diapered bottom as she said “John, why don’t you give Xerxes a treat to save Miss Karen from the mean ol’ doggy?” After a moment to realize what was going on, he mumbled “Ummm… sure?” And sure enough, Mommy opened up the child gate and held the treat out for John to take. As he took it she said “Why don’t you show Miss Karen what you taught Xerxes to do, all on your own without any help from anyone?” Again, it was all he could do to repeat “Ummm… sure.” as the glass door was opened for him. Stepping out on the porch, Xerxes immediately smelled him down from top to bottom, and every so often he would smell a spot, glare at Karen, and then smell that spot again to confirm that she had touched his little. John had to literally poke Xerxes on the side of his snout with the treat to get him to acknowledge it existed. Patiently leading the stubborn dog to one side of the porch, John held out his right hand and said “Gimme Paw!” Xerxes immediately picked up his paw and gave John five. Then John got greedy for the moment and held his arms out and said “Hug?” Suddenly Xerxes huffed and snatched the treat from his hand before stepping closer and sitting, so that John could wrap his arms around his neck. “Close enough!” John declared as he hugged the dog. Looking over toward the bigs, he could see that Karen looked even more incredulous than she had when he had come a couple seconds from matching her time with the puzzle. Finally Xerxes started trying to stand back up, so John ran around and tried to climb up on top of him to keep him distracted. As Karen took the moment to try and leave, she shouted back: “I could still write you up for not having a mesh wall on the porch!” MeMaw just waved and said “But you won’t, because then you’d have to come back and face the dog!” Karen was out the gate, and the gate slammed shut behind her. As the gate made a loud clatter, Xerxes stood up with John astride his back and turned to bark a couple of times. The sound of a car door was heard briefly before tires could be heard on gravel. Finally MeMaw burst out into laughter. Not even her usual reserved laughter, she had a genuine good laugh attack while John and Mommy both stared at her, eventually at least chuckling along with her. When she regained her composure, MeMaw kissed Mommy on the cheek and reached down to take John from Xerxes back. Xerxes tried to growl briefly, but one loud snap of her fingers above his head and MeMaw had Xerxes shut down in a heartbeat. Even Xerxes respected MeMaw too much to try his luck. “Come on you two, now I get to spoil my Grandson some more while his Mommy works in the garden.” Mommy followed her into the house asking “Aren’t you going to bother explaining what all just happened between you and her?” MeMaw just shook her as she took some groceries out of the bag with only her left hand. “I don’t really intend to explain it. She’s got some nasty preconceptions, and this inspection will hopefully shake her up a bit. Now! I stopped by the store on the way here and got some Honey Nut Happy-O’s for my little grandson to snack on.” “Mom!” Mommy tried to get her to come back around, but MeMaw didn’t seem to care as she just went back to talking. “Also, I went through the produce section and had a quick conversation, and would you believe that Nana Claire not only remembered John, but when I told her that he was my Grandson, she cut up a small container of honeydew melon for him and told me that he would love it with a bottle of some sort of inter dimensional drink to go with it?” “Mom!” came Mommy’s reply. John just looked up and asked around his pacy “Weaw...Weally? Doef Eferyone hewe know Namma Claiwe?” MeMaw simply nodded and explained “This is a very small city, and everyone knows Nana Claire.” John couldn’t help rolling his eyes and flopping his head onto MeMaws chest. Somehow, that settled it. This entire dimension was just crazy.

On the upside, she might make it TO work. Edit: Briefly

So I'm enjoying the perspective you're building here. It's a great look into some of the many social traps they've built!

I don't really have it in any sort of a PDF form, and I've had a few hiccups where I've lost progress here and there. So what I do have is all pre-edits. (Although what I have posted still needs plenty of editing) Sorry. I hear that there is a whole platter of Amazonian Triple Chocolate Halzelnut Overload Ovals (ACHOO*) left. For some reason they came with some special super expanding diapers that claim to have "Indescribable Triple Capacity, for Hazardous Instense Extreme loads. (ITCHIE Loads*) I'm pretty sure these cookies are safe to eat. I ate three a minute ago with some of the provided chocolate milk. (*Names are patent property of the Amazonian Securement Society) For what it's worth, he did at least pee on her? See above, at least he managed to pee on her. See? Now ALL the littles want cookies. But some nice Amazon lady wandered through and donated a full platter of cookies. So it worked out in the end.

That might be a fun writing project!

The next chapter is already roughed out, I just need RL to cooperate with me. I've been cheating off of my own homework this entire time by having an outline that I can refer back to so that I can stay mostly on track. Yes, but now -i- want a cookie as well, and I can't have any because our kitchen is out of commission until we can get some repair work done. So that's four littles that now want cookies.

Guilend, look what you have done! You made all the littles want cookies! Maybe it's Amazon sized diapers, suppositories, and one big honkin' paddle. Who knows! I try to stick to the established norms, but balance that out with what's good for the story. Like how a good DM does for their group to keep it challenging but engaging. You remember what Amazon chocolate does? Triple chocolate would put you in the hospital on an IV, and leave your insides pretty well destroyed!

Chapter Fifty Seven John sat in his Fort Dogbreath, struggling to sit still as he listened to this absolutely awful woman be rude and snippy to his adoptive mother. She was so loud and condescending that he heard every word she said every step of the way through the house. The only cathartic thing John could think to do was to keep adding to his doodle of the horrid imp. So at first he just had a doodle of her holding Argo McDerpus out at arms length. Then he added horns to her head. Then he had leaned out of Fort Dogbreath to eye her before drawing a barbed tail on the evil Imp lady. It was around that time that John heard the LPS lady say that he needed to be moved to the playpen. So before he even heard Mommy approach, he stopped drawing and held up both arms. As she got him under the arms, she whispered “You’re listening?” While being carried to the playpen he whispered back “Hard not to, she’s louder than the dog.” Before she put him down, she asked “Hey, you know something?” He looked up at her with those glassy eyes as he asked “What?” With a kiss on the forehead, Amanda whispered “I Love you. What are you drawing?” John simply bit his lip. “John?” He looked away as he held up the drawing pad to show her his very unflattering doodle. She looked briefly like she wanted to laugh before saying “John, please … don’t … just flip to the next page when we come back through.” He simply nodded as he settled into the playpen, and back into his doodling to distract himself as Rupert was put next to him before she walked away. For the first time ever, he felt a bit safer being in the playpen where this awful woman wouldn’t come and bother him. With a smirk, John flipped the page over and quickly re-doodled the woman, this time adding a bump under her skirt to imply that she was wearing a diaper, the barbed tail had a pacifier hanging from a strap clipped to it. And while she was still holding Argo, he was swinging a folded diaper at her face. On a whim he added a little word bubble over her head reading ‘I’m allergic to being nice!’ The inspection of the house dragged on so long that he had enough time to press really hard and draw some of the background wall and ceiling. Somewhere along the way he had started to need to go in his diaper, but with it being almost halfway used, he held it in. The last thing he wanted was to need a change while this awful lady was here. Finally, he could hear that it was his turn to deal with her, so he put his pencils down and waited for Mommy to come and pick him up. Before carrying him to the table, she was whispering “It’ll be fine. You just need to answer her questions for a couple of minutes and then she’ll probably want to confirm things like we got rid of your body hair, and that you don’t have any rashes or anything. She just has to confirm that you aren’t being neglected. Can you be brave for me for a few minutes?” Taking it all in, he nodded and whispered back “Yes Ma’am.” As he was placed in the booster seat and buckled in, John couldn’t help making a face as the slightly swollen padding put pressure on his bladder and squeezed a bit of pee out of him. Off to a great start, this. As he looked up to see what was expected of him, John saw the woman simply holding out a cylinder with grooves on it, with a big ring going around the outside of it. “Take the ring off.” was all she said. Coldly. So, reaching out with both hands to take it from her, it was just big enough that he had to pin one end between his knees to stand it up and take a good look at it. It was a simple ring puzzle, where there were teeth on the ring that face inward, and you had to move the ring up or down while turning it. It looked a LOT like one of the 3D puzzles that he had been doing while he was in MeMaw’s lap. Identical, in fact. Mumbling “Huh. Okay.” John simply started. It took a moment to get the hang of having to grab the ring with both hands because it was obviously made for someone much bigger than himself, but once he had a good grip on the ring and the cylinder wedged between his thighs, he was able to work the ring patiently back and forth, and even back down at one spot, and he got the metal ring off after a couple of minutes. “Mm.” was all the lady said as she took the puzzle from him and slid his chair all the way up to the table. Reaching into the diaper bag, she then pulled out a box. A very familiar looking box. Once she opened the box with a wood block puzzle with 32 pieces in it and poured the pieces onto the table. This puzzle was identical to the wooden puzzle that MeMaw had brought. John didn’t even wait for her to tell him what to do, he just started putting it together. It took a single minute, since he remembered where everything went. “Mm.” was all he got as the puzzle was taken away from him. Next, she pulled a laminated piece of posterboard with some sentences on it, and a dry erase marker. At the top it said “Draw a line from the correct word to the sentence it belongs in” Looking at the sentences, John felt kind of insulted by the simplicity. Did this woman think he was a preschooler? With a deep breath and a sigh, John simply said “Mm.” and quickly drew lines with the awkwardly large marker from the words on the right to the sentence they belonged in. Having played the pipe game a lot, he made a show of routing the lines around one another so they didn’t touch. Twenty minutes into dealing with this woman and his bladder was starting to feel like it was going to explode, but he refused to let go until this woman left the house. After he finished the word puzzle, complete with embellishments, she made a weird motion with her head, almost like scoffing as she said: “Mm.” John couldn’t help himself, he looked up at her and said: “Mm?” Quizzically. She just stared down at him. He could feel the judgment in her gaze. Finally she said “I think we can take a break from this and do your physical examination, then.” “Uhhh….. My what?” John asked, entirely confused. But the Karen lady didn’t bother to explain anything to John. She simply unbuckled him from the booster seat, picked him up with no warning or consideration, and got her diaper bag. Somehow, being carried by this woman scared him. It was like her grip on his was too tight and he still felt like he was going to fall at the same time. He reached out toward his Mommy as they went past her, but all she could do was follow along. Being carried into the bedroom, John was placed sitting up on the changing table, and the large diaper bag was placed at the end of it, out of his reach. “What I am doing here is to inspect him for any bruises, scrapes, or inappropriate body hair. You may stand outside the room and wait.” Karen said not to John, but to Mommy standing in the doorway. As the woman reached for one of the buckles on his shortalls, John started scooting his butt back on the table, trying to get away from her while holding his hands over the buckles. He didn’t even make it back a single foot before she had grabbed both of his ankles in one hand and pulled him forward. With a quick swat to his left hand, the instant he pulled his hand away and shook it out of reflex, the buckle was undone. And the moment he reached for the unbuckled one, the other one was undone. The swat hadn’t hurt at all, it was just such a sudden movement that he reacted. Trying to protest, John said “I don’t want to be undressed by you!” a bit more loudly than he intended. Her glare shut him up. John stared up at her for a few seconds before he stammered out: “… please?” Quick as lightning, her hand flashed out, snagged his pacifier dangling off the clip of his shirt and the bulb was shoved into his mouth. He flailed for two or three seconds while the calming Littles Powder on the bulb hit his tongue and quickly made its way into his bloodstream through some sort of Amazonian science. Within ten seconds of the pacifier that Mommy had covered in calming medicine being shoved into his mouth, his muscles all started to relax on their own and his entire posture softened. The result was that he immediately looked less defiant. Staring into his eyes for a moment, Karen finally nodded in satisfaction as she mumbled to herself. “At least you were properly pacy trained. She gets plenty of points for that.” And without bothering to say anything else to him like his involvement mattered in any way, Karen started pulling his shirt up and off. Feeling himself lifted and rotated while she looked at his front sides and back made him feel like he was some sort of doll being inspected for flaws. Nodding in approval, the woman then pivoted him down and let the foam bars of the changing table pin him in place. When she started to push his hands into the wrist straps, he tried to resist as hard as he could, but if his resistance caused her to have to push his arms any harder, you couldn't tell. Stopping with him now restrained, he saw her getting something out of the diaper bag below his feet. Producing a small notepad, the woman spoke softly to herself while she took notes. Occasionally she would lean and look at him like a piece of meat. “Subject appears intelligent, defiant. Properly pacy trained. Body hair properly removed. Subject appears to be scrawny, but fed well. I suspect emaciated when arriving in this dimension.” The note pad was put down above his head she took a moment to don some disposable gloves from her diaper bag. Even through the sedatives and calming agents, John found himself chewing on the pacy nervously as his diaper tapes were pulled and the diaper was laid open. As he saw the woman grab a wet wipe, he couldn’t help picking up his knees and pinning them together and tilting them away from her. Not really sure what he hoped to accomplish, he just hoped she wouldn’t start scrubbing his privates and would call Mommy back in. Apparently that effort was fruitless as the woman reached down and simply pushed a pressure point inside of one of his knees until he gave up and moved his legs back down. Going to work scrubbing him in his diaper area very thoroughly, she then started to tilt him this way and that. Apparently she was satisfied to find that he had no body hair on his legs and then she used a warm wet wipe to move his member to one side and then the other to confirm that there was no body hair. Much to Johns humiliation … his little friend began to respond to the attention in the most natural way. It started getting hard. Karen blinked. “Huh. I guess she hasn’t done anything about that.” Looking around the changing table, she asked herself “Where does she keep her spray … No matter.” Unzipping the front section of her diaper bag, she pulled out a small spray can and quickly sprayed up one side of his genitals and down the other. The instant the spray hit him he shivered as it felt cold. But then quickly didn’t feel at all. Not even numb, just … no feeling. Nodding in approval, Karen said “That will keep that thing under control for an hour or two.” as she put the can back. Trying to twist around to see what was happening did no good with the foam bar across his chest. Then while she was about to pull the diaper out from under him, she suddenly squeaked, and folded the front of the diaper back and started grabbing wet wipes to scrub her arm off, and then more wipes to scrub the changing table as all the pee he had been trying to hold in had no resistance when the numbing spray kicked in. Once she was done, Karen pulled her gloves off and picked her notepad back up while he lay there helplessly as his bladder emptied entirely of its own accord into the already slightly wet diaper loosely placed around him. John felt entirely demoralized. It only go worse as she mumbled as she wrote. “Subject is perfectly hairless, skin is free of marks. Defiance to being changed by unfamiliar grown ups.” Stopping to look at his diaper laid over him, she added to her notes “Subject also has no control over his penis.” And after a moment, added “… Which seems typical.” Apparently he was fully done after a minute, because she opened the diaper back up and set herself to changing him. She pulled out one of the thick overnight diapers, and looked at it like she was very obviously contemplating putting him in it. He could only imagine that she would cherish the thought of him not being able to even walk. But ultimately she got out a rough pup and popped it out with one hand before sliding it underneath him. After powdering him, she spent a moment getting everything lined up just right, pulled up high, and pushed down a bit while pulling the tapes in snug. When she was done the diaper he was wearing was so tight on him that the leg gathers were uncomfortable. He already knew he was going to waddle because of how tight this thing was, and sedatives or not, he was already grumpy about it. Once he was in a fresh rough, she spent a moment feeling his belly and sides. Almost as if to prove that she was not done with him, she pushed gently on his belly while getting a hand under his knees and pulling them up toward his chest and then gently rocking his lower body side to side like she was trying to work something out. After less than a minute, some gas escaped him in an involuntary fart. “Oh!” she said before addressing him directly like one would a baby “It looks like somebody’s Mommy is going to need to give them a suppository soon! Yes she will.” Even more embarrassment, but she didn’t care at all as she finally released his wrists and bumped something to make the bars pop back up. Half deciding to intentionally go limp, and half just emotionally dead after all of his humiliation, he didn’t help the woman put his shirt back onto him. Which did not phase her at all, as she threaded his limp arms through the holes in his shirt. She did not bother with his shortalls at all as she picked him up and got him against her chest. While she got her diaper bag, John wondered if he could somehow intentionally drool on her chest. Once they made it back to the living room, he was placed down in the playpen, where he simply crumpled and lay there staring through the mesh. The indifferent woman then turned to explain things to Mommy. “So you have done well to remove his body hair. His little friend stood up, I don’t know if you plan to do anything about that, but it’s not required like removing the body hair is. He was a bit defiant, but you seem to have pacy trained him well.” Mommy came over to the playpen and leaned down to pick him up and cradled him up against her chest. She gently stroked his hair as she tried to make sure he felt comforted. Which he definitely appreciated right now. He could hear the woman behind him further explaining things. “All that I would like to do from here is see if he has enough coordination to stand while doing a toddler level puzzle on the coffee table, and see if he can compose a couple of sentences in a meaningful way. He could feel Mommy nodding along above him. “Miss Taylor, I will admit that I do not believe that he has toddler level maturity in all ways, but as long as he can do these last simple tasks, he will manage to clear the goals enough. He certainly has the sass of a toddler down, but he’s not learned to just go in his diaper yet instead of trying to hold it.” With his head a bit clearer now, John looked up at Mommy, who was busy locking eyes with the LPS lady. With a slight huff he just let his head flop back against her chest. Within a couple of minutes, John found himself standing in front of the coffee table, and a notepad was placed in front of him. And next to that notepad was a crayon. A frickin’ crayon. John looked up at the two bigs before asking around the pacifier in his mouth “Penciww?” Mommy did not even hesitate to go get his small sketch pad and two pencils from his playpen and put them down in front of him. Looking up at the LPS lady expectantly, he pointed at the paper with the pencil and asked “Wha yoo wanf?” around the pacy. In a moment of frustration, he tried to push the pacy out with his tongue, with only made it grab his teeth in that weird ‘suddenly this bulb has all the friction’ way that it did. With a sigh, he sucked on the pacy while he listened to what the lady wanted. “I just need you to write me a few sentences. I want to see how literate you are.” She explained as if it weren’t some demeaning test. “Fine.” Was all he said as he leaned forward to write. Making sure to read out loud as he wrote, John started without even caring that the pacy was forcibly giving him a childish lisp: “My … name … is … John … I … wive … wigh … my … Mommy Fhe … if … a … very … nice … perfon … and … I … wove … her We … have … a … dog … namef … Xerxef. And … he … if … preggy … awefome. We … have … a … squirrew … named … Fgeve. Fomehow … even … ghe … squirrew … if … a … begger … perfon … ghan …” But before John could even finish writing out an insult aimed at the mean woman, the door opened. There was no knock, the door simply opened. As John turned, he immediately saw MeMaw walk in with her purse on her left shoulder and a grocery bag in her left hand. John did not hesitate. The pencil in his hand went airborne as he immediately went as fast as he could across the living room, waddling because of how tight the stupid diaper was. Screw the inspection. Screw the inspector. Definitely screw the stupid invasive exam that left him feeling humiliated. In fact, in that moment, to hell with most of this dimension and their rules and expectations. John made it to MeMaw in time to be scooped up with one arm, waited for her to drop off the groceries and her purse on the counter, and was then scooted up into a GREAT BIG hug. As far as John was concerned, everyone would have to wait. MeMaw was here.

If you saw my notecards and cross referencing, you would either try to get me into a straight jacket, or think that I'm somehow functioning on a very unique level. Dogs are the best people! Thank you very kindly! I'll keep doing my best as life allows me the opportunity to write.

From my perspective: If you look at the Amazonian society that has been presented to us consistently over the years, the one that has grown from the original concept. (That was an incredible ABDL flight of fancy) then for the society that puts SO much emphasis on maturity to function, then it must also demand an incredible amount of conformity. Any time you have a society that demands conformity, especially at this level, you are always going to have statistical outliers. People that with either learn to blend in or the society will deal with them by either expelling them, or forcing them into a position that they will act how they are expected to. (In this case, Guilend gets his daydream, but with the twist of they would likely ultimately be 'disappeared' and shrunk down into a littler size. Raising the argument that Amazons are dry clean only?) A big part of my intent in this story is to highlight the examples of those statistical outliers. Ones that don't fit the mold. Aunt Cat is a social chameleon, in a way. When she is out and about in Amazon society, she blends in perfectly. And it has been implied that she has taught Kate to blend in the same. As far as society around them can tell, they're an idealistic family unit that behaves exactly as expected. Amanda, it has been inferred and even outright said in a few places, is not a social chameleon like her very close friend Cat. The pressure of trying to pretend for more than an hour or two at a time here and there is too much for her. She's an introvert, and she works perfectly well with small groups, but not out and about. So she removed herself from the society equation. Next you have John. I'll admit that originally the main character was going to be Kate, but I wanted to avoid self insertion and when I completely rewrote draft of the first ten chapters with John as the main character, everything just clicked right into place. Writing it this way feels like it was just meant to be. It almost feels like I'm not creating a story, but sharing the story of their lives this way. John is not a social butterfly, and I have my own headcannon about why John is the exact way that he is, reacts the way that he does, and even thinks the way that he does. There is an obscure RL explanation for this exact behavior. This reason will never be stated outright in the story. And of course, the REAL main character is Xerxes. So with the description that I have given above, what is LPS is not the ultimate arbiter of the social norm? There are absolutely going to be LPS agents that do what they do because they just adore littles and want them all to be safe and loved. (MeMaw) But there are also going to be LPS agents that see themselves as the defenders of societal expectations. I think of it as shades of gray. A little is expected to behave above this line, and below this line. Anything outside of those is to be punished until it fits back into its lane. Any Amazon physically abusing a little? It's outside of that accepted range. A little trying to be a 'grown up' and reason like an Amazon? Also outside of that range. You see a similar structure in RL, albeit it nowhere near this extreme. We are expected to operate roughly within given expectations. Some of us don't fit neatly into those shades of gray. ... Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

I take this comment to mean that I did well!

Guilend, you're fun and we like you. So we poke at you because it is fun and we like you. We are littles, we are not overly complex creatures.