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Hey All, So this is my first attempt at a story. I do a lot of technical writing in my day job, but nothing creative, so this has been an interesting outlet so far. I was heavily inspired by Author_Alex's Done Adulting, as well as by bbykimmy's Making The Best Of It (though I don't think that really shows yet). In general I'm mostly using Author_Alex's iteration on the diaper dimension (with potential non-canon changes), though in a new location. When I was reading his novel, I kind of wondered what would have happened if Amanda didn't exist, and Jamie wasn't a superhumanly good person. Would there still have been a happy ending? This has lead to the story I'm writing now. I'm not a good writer like the two mentioned above, but I hope my story will at least be interesting. Also! I would be very happy to receive critiques, as I do plan to write more stories in the future (though this one isn't even close to finished). I know I currently have problems with the 'show don't tell' rule, but I think I am getting better, and I didn't want to wait any longer to make a post. I hope my writing will improve with every update I think I'll try to update weekly or so. With that, here is the first few chapters of The Worst Little Ever: Prologue------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erin Miller had been a research scientist for an agriculture forecasting company, trying to predict what crops will do well each year. Last year she had made a significant discovery in the field, essentially adding an extra week of predictability to regular crop forecasts. While this doesn’t sound that impressive, the financial repercussions were massive. Erin was wealthy overnight, and while she enjoyed her job as much as most people enjoyed their jobs, retiring at the age of 29 sounded amazing, and the sort of thing her friends would yell at her for if she didn’t do. So, about six months ago, Erin quit her job to live off her windfall. At first, she had had great fun travelling. Eire, Albion, Itali, Catalon, she had spent nearly two months of these six playing tourist, wining and dining, and generally taking advantage of never having to worry about money again. Home in Aquitane wasn’t bad either. She had bought a nice condo in the capital city of Bordeu; she didn’t have the need or desire for a large house, chores were never really her thing. Eventually, Erin had started to grow a bit bored; all her friends still had to work and there is only so much traveling one can do before home sounds like the best place to be. She started thinking about adopting a Little. Erin wasn’t particularly interested in adult romantic relationships, her previous boyfriend and girlfriend didn’t last long. When she was a little girl, Erin had begged her parents for a Little, and was always rebuffed. Her parents didn’t like the idea of people with full, vibrant lives being snatched from their homes. They also felt uncomfortable with the idea of Littles (who really should be called humans) agreeing to be mentally and physically regressed (or in the mind of Erin’s parents, mutilated) just so that they could escape the pain of life in their world. In Erin’s parents mind, the best thing to do would have been to help humans with the problems in their own world, it’s just that for most Bigs, biology makes Littles seem oh-so-cute, and so there was no reason to stop them from coming. As she grew up, Erin came to mostly agree with her parents’ reasoning, in most cases, it would be something near inhumane to adopt a Little. However, biology is a fickle thing. Like most Bigs, Erin thought Littles were adorable; she took every opportunity she could as a teenager to babysit and otherwise interact with the Littles in her neighborhood. But now, she had to consider the type of Little she wanted, and both morally and personally there needed to be a good fit. Until their joining with the Alliance nations, it hadn’t been explicitly illegal to adopt a kidnapped Little in Aquitane, though it was heavily frowned upon. Aquitane had tried to maintain a neutral state in order to maintain positive connections with nearly all nations. It hadn’t worked out very well, hence their joining the Alliance. It was (and had been for a very long time) illegal to either physically or mentally regress a non-consenting Little, which made kidnapping a less appealing option – who wants a Little who will bite and scream and cry all the time? Even if you can stop the outburst with spanking, it doesn’t really fill the parenting itch nor eventually guide the Little towards happiness. Littles who had been kidnapped here (there were very few) were grandfathered in by the new agreement, though they were monitored more heavily by the Department of Little Services to make sure they weren’t being mistreated by their Bigs. Actual consenting adoptions were much more common, and some of the companies that had for a long time only operated in Itali were beginning to open branches in Aquitane as well. However, the vast majority of adoptees came regressed. Erin knew her parents would not be okay with her adopting a regressed Little, and she didn’t really want one anyway. What Erin wanted was a partner, someone she could have meaningful conversations with. Somebody she could care for, and could, eventually appreciate that care. Adoptions of unregressed Littles weren’t very common in Aquitane, so the only real source of unregressed Littles to the country was through the adoption of Accidental Littles. Accidental Littles were humans who had made the trip to their dimension accidentally, usually happening when a small dimensional rift opens that both humans and Bigs weren’t prepared to contain. Occasionally these rifts open in populated areas and a Little or two gets sucked through before the rift collapses on itself. Being an Accidental Little had consequences that other types of Littles didn’t have to worry about. Usually, when one prepares for a cross-dimensional trip, there is significant medical and mental preparation. A planned trip takes many days, while machinery and medicine helps to make sure that the Little arrives healthy, and without any trauma associated with the travel. Accidental Littles travel without those luxuries, and a trip which takes days normally may be over in an hour or two. An hour of trans-dimensional travel wreaks havoc on a body, in a similar manner to exposure to large amounts of radiation, trans-dimensional travel increases a Little’s risk factors for all sorts of diseases as well as cancer. Another negative side effect is that once the Little arrives in the new dimension. If they don’t leave again within a few hours, their bodies won’t ever be able to tolerate any sort of trans-dimensional trip again. Given that Accidental Littles are ‘accidental’, essentially all of them that come are suck: there’s no time to prepare them for a trip back. This ‘dimensional sickness’ essentially traps them in a dimension where they are the size of a toddler, and most Bigs view them in that way, or some variation of it. Erin thought she would be a pretty good fit for and Accidental Little, she was mostly aware of their cognitive abilities from discussions with her parents, and she felt prepared to help them transition to a life they were not expecting. She had read the classic books on raising Littles: Caring for your Little, Growing Up or Growing Down, Helping your Little be a Little, and When your Little is Pissed Off. Erin figured the last one probably wouldn’t be necessary; she could use reason to keep them calm. Conceptually, she understood that the transition period would be tough: The Little wouldn’t be regressed like an adoptee, and she had no desire to damage the Little into submission like Bigs associated with a kidnapping do. She felt that she would be able to show the Little that they could actually have a good life here; they could be early retirees together! Erin really didn’t understand how big and bad of a change it could be for the incoming Little. So, under the assumption that an Accidental Little would make her happy, and that she could make said Little happy, she applied to adopt one. Portal rifts are rare enough that there is generally a considerable waiting time after the application until adoption. Simultaneously, not that many Bigs wanted this sort of Little anyway, so it was not like she would be competing with a ton of other Bigs for the next incoming Little. Her financial resources and well-educated background made her a strong candidate for adopting. Chapter 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luke Kepplin had been studying in his university’s library when the world ended. He had been preparing for his macroeconomics final, the exam would be his final final of his third year at university. Instead, he and about half a dozen books were ripped out of reality. Unplanned trips across dimensions are always rough. Luke’s was luckily on the short side, that means it hurts more, but the bandage gets ripped off rather than torn slowly away. By the end of the trip it felt like he was aware of every individual skin cell, every piece of his body felt like it had been penetrated by a blinding light, despite the fact that the during the entire event it was pitch black. He arrived in the new dimension about 3 meters above a lake. One benefit of that was that when he immediately vomited upon arrival, he was clean pretty much instantly. The lake was cold, and Luke wasn’t really prepared to keep himself afloat after the trip he had. His first gasp was a cold blast of water going all the places it shouldn’t within his body. The rip in space-time immediately attracted the attention of the Bigs who were spending the day near the lake. From the shoreline it looked like a small child and some even smaller books plopped out of a hole in the world and fell into the water. The portal evaporated by the time Luke hit the surface of the lake. The Little was immediately splashing in the cold lake, but it took a long moment for any of the Bigs to react. It’s not every day that reality gets torn asunder, even if it’s a just little bit. The first person to act was a man who had been fishing in his canoe. He was less than 100 meters away and began paddling like a bat out of hell. Another Big who had been lounging on shore ran to her kayak saw, and immediately began paddling as well. The rest of the Bigs, maybe 15 or so, were crowding the shoreline nearest to the Little, though it was still quite far away. The man in the canoe got to him first. Luke was still struggling, but was at least aware of the situation. The biggest problem for him had been his soaked clothes dragging and slowing his movements. He had been able to kick off his shoes at least, so that he could tread water a bit better. With one hand, the Big grabbed the seat of Luke’s pants as well as the bottom of his shirt. “I’ve got you buddy, you’re gonna be fine.” The kayaker reached them. “Is he okay? He’s a Little right? I think someone’s already called for an ambulance.” “I think he’ll be fine, he’s just cold. Let’s get him to shore.” Luke had sort of become aware of the situation around him, but was massively confused. It felt like he was sitting on the bottom of a Viking longboat, and a thirteen-foot-tall giant had just thrown him a towel. “How ‘bout you dry yourself off bud. Can you tell me your name?” Luke had wrapped the towel around his shoulders. It was more like a quilt considering his size, he wasn’t really drying himself, just sitting there shivering. “I’m Luke.” It was then, after his body had realized it was no longer in danger of immediately dying, that it decided now was a good time to pass out. The trauma of the trip and time in the lake had taken its toll. It was a much more disturbing view for the Bigs paddling back to shore. The Little gave his name and then proceeded to fall face-forward into the floor of the canoe. He hit nose first, and a trickle of blood began to drip onto the bottom of the boat. “He’s probably passed out from the cold, get in the canoe, you need to warm him up, I’ll paddle us to shore.” “But won’t that make you a lot slower?” “Yeah, but I think right now he needs to get warm more than anything else.” Slowly and with great care, the kayaker maneuvered to the side of the canoe. Putting one hand on the bottom of the canoe for stability, she slid her legs over from the kayak. Then, with one hand on the kayak, and one on the canoe, she pushed her butt off the kayak and slid over, resting on the wooden bench seat above the unconscious little. The canoe only tipped a little bit. “I’m gonna strip him and try to warm him up. Paddle as fast as you can.” The man was already paddling. The woman sounded like she was trying very hard to be calm but was failing. She picked Luke up from the floor of the boat, immediately unbuttoning his jeans and pulling them off along with his underwear. The tiny button and zipper were hard for her fingers to manage and took a frustrating amount of time; she had never taken care of a little before. With his naked butt sitting on her lap, she tried to take off his shirt. The combination of a clinging wet shirt and an unconscious Little made the task impossible if she didn’t want to hurt his shoulders. She gripped his collar with both hands and tore the shirt down the middle. Once she had gotten the tear most of the way down, she was able to pop his arms out of the sleeves and get the shirt off. More gently than she might have otherwise, the Big woman quickly set to work getting Luke dry. His tiny body was shivering heavily, due to both the cold lake and the trauma endured due to the travel. The woman pulled Luke to her chest and began vigorously rubbing him to try and get him warm. The man was focused on paddling. By the time they had gotten to shore Luke was no longer shaking. Every 30 seconds or so he would moan an “urrgh” into the woman’s chest, but he was sleeping more or less soundly. The crowd had parted to make way for the canoe coming towards shore. Two men had waded into the water so that they could pull it the final 20 meters or so as quickly as possible. Getting off the canoe while cradling the little boy, the woman yelled into the crowd. “Does anybody have a change of clothes? His towel’s pretty damp and he needs to stay warm.” “Yeah I’ve got a change over here.” A man with a Little boy holding onto his thigh was standing on the outer edge of the crowd. “Let’s change him on that picnic table there.” They unwrapped Luke from the towel. The man pulled out a spare diaper intended for his son, and put it under Luke’s butt, he powdered his diaper area and tapped it on. Luke’s nose had stopped bleeding, the woman cleaned it off with a wet wipe. The sleeper the man had for Luke was a bit too big; his hands were completely covered by the edge of the sleeves, and the legs covered his heels. The woman cradled Luke to her chest again and waited for the ambulance to come. It took about 10 more minutes, about 30 from the time of the call, for the ambulance to arrive. The lake was relatively isolated. By the time they arrived, the park ranger had as well. Quickly, the paramedics had loaded Luke into the back of the ambulance, thanking the canoer, the woman, and the man who had given the change of clothes. The woman was jogging to her car. “Excuse me, miss, I’m gonna have to ask that you stay here. I’ll need to interview everybody so that we can establish exactly what happened here.” “But, but, I’d like to go make sure he’s okay, I took care of him!” The woman was finally allowing the reality of the situation to wash over her. “Miss, he’s in good hands, and you’re not his caregiver. You wouldn’t be allowed to follow even if I didn’t have to interview you. Perhaps you can contact the adoption agency once everything’s been settled.” “Where are they taking him?” She was breathing normally now. “He’ll be taken to a hospital in Bordeu. After that, the Department of Little Services will either send him back to his dimension, or he’ll be adopted out.” Aquitane didn’t have independent Littles. “I wonder if I can adopt him?” Chapter 2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 1 “Hey buddy, you in there?” The nurse figured he would have woken up by now. Unprotected trans-dimensional travel was really stressful on the body, but not anything that couldn’t be handled with modern medicine. “Mmmm ugrgh” Luke shifted a bit but didn’t open his eyes. “Great job buddy! Let’s keep waking up!” Nurse Joy epitomized her name. She loved her job as a specialist Little’s nurse, and was looking forward to meeting this one conscious. She was humming around his hospital room. He had no real belongings remaining, except for his wallet which was found by the canoer and sent to the hospital the day after his arrival. They had been able to find his parents’ contact information, though it remained to be seen when or if they would be able to visit him in this dimension. The time window for getting an Accidental Little back had already closed. His arrival location and general situation had made it impossible, and the authorities had been focused on getting him safe and healthy. According to his driver’s license, Luke Kepplin was 20 years old, due to turn 21 in three months’ time, 5’8” tall and 170 pounds (nurse Joy thought that was mostly muscle), very dark brown hair that was kept quite short and brown eyes. In nurse Joy’s eyes, he looked like the kind of guy who would be pretty popular in college, he had a handsome face and a well-defined jawline. It still surprised her to look at him: most littles had some amount of age-reducing treatment performed on them and they often looked pre-pubescent. Luke looked every bit a miniature adult. His body hair was also a bit disconcerting as well, with every diaper change Joy was again reminded that Littles are all actual adults, even if they don’t act that way. She figured that he’d eventually go through some amount of de-aging process to fit in a bit better. “Mmmgh hello?” Luke was apparently conscious. Joy was very familiar with the process of settling a Little who hadn’t really interacted or seen Bigs yet (his short period in the boat not really counting). She stepped behind a screen set up on one side of his bed so that she could talk to him without him seeing her at first. “Hi Luke, you can’t see me just yet, but my name is nurse Joy. I’m one of your nurses here in the hospital. Can you tell me what you remember? Do you know where you are?” Joy was sitting on an armless chair with a clipboard in her hand ready to take notes. “Urrgh, um I remember studying in the library, then it felt like my body was kind of on fire, like I hit my funny bone, but everywhere. Then I remember being cold and in some water… What happened? Where am I?” Luke started to sit up, and tried to fiddle with is IV. Other than that, there was no tubing on him, just a wireless ECG monitor in the wristband on his right wrist. “Luke, bud, um, so you got sucked into a dimensional portal, that’s probably what caused that funny bone feeling you were describing. Do you understand what that means buddy? You got dropped in our dimension…” On hearing the words ‘dimensional portal’ Luke sucked in a gulp of air. He knew about kidnappings to the Amazon dimension, he knew that occasionally people would go there voluntarily under very special circumstances, he wasn’t really aware of accidental travel, maybe he had heard about a human coming back from a trip one time on the news, but didn’t remember the details. That pretty much all Bigs were aware of all the ways a Little might come to the dimension, while humans were only vaguely aware of some of the possibilities spoke volumes about the difference in focus. Here, a large portion of the world revolved around Littles; back in the human dimension, Amazons were at the periphery, a vague boogeyman and occasionally a savior for people whose lives had taken a difficult turn. “Um, so I’m in the Amazon dimension right? Does that mean that you’re an Amazon too?” Joy winced a bit at his choice of wording, ‘Amazon’ was about as bad as it got in terms of trans-dimensional cursing. She also knew that he probably didn’t know any better. “That’s right Luke. Though we definitely prefer the term Big, using Amazon is considered pretty rude here.” “I’m gonna pull the curtain back. I want you to prepare yourself a bit, I’m gonna seem really really big to you. It’s okay if you get a bit scared, but just know I won’t hurt you, and I won’t come closer to you until you’re ready.” “Um, okay, you can pull the curtain, I won’t get scared.” Looking around the room during the conversation, Luke had vaguely understood that he was tiny compared to a standard-sized Big. The room was not sized to fit humans at all. Nurse Joy gripped one side of the curtain and pulled it back. Neither quickly nor slowly, she was revealed to Luke. Even sitting, she towered over him reclining in his hospital bed. She was about five feet away from the edge of the bed. “Woah! You’re huge! How tall are you?” Luke’s conscious brain was simultaneously amazed and impressed: this would be an awesome memory to share with his friends at home. Luke’s animal brain though was quickly realizing that he might be in danger. His heart rate was getting a lot faster, as evidenced by the ECG’s more rapid “beep..beep..beep”. Joy smiled internally, it was always nice when the Little wasn’t absolutely terrified of seeing someone so much bigger than them. In reality, Joy was quite short for a Big, not even 12 feet; she had hoped that her short height would make Littles more comfortable with her, but it hadn’t really seemed to matter, some got scared, a few didn’t. She was an awesome Little’s nurse anyway. Now she put on a caring smile outside to match the internal one. “I bet I seem pretty big to you huh. Can you take some slow deep breaths for me? Let’s try to get as little stress on your body as possible.” Luke complied, realizing that maybe he was a little more nervous than he had thought initially. “Are you okay if I stand up and touch you? I need to check you just a little bit.” “That’s okay.” Luke’s heart was under control, but his conscious brain was getting more and more concerned. Did his parents know where he was? What about his girlfriend? Would his university be okay with him missing presumably a lot of school? He didn’t want to have to make up a semester. Extra student loans would suck. He hoped they wouldn’t try to charge him for damage caused by the sudden dimensional portal, he obviously wasn’t responsible for that. Joy had gotten up and checked his diaper. She was prepared for some argument, but Luke had just blanched a bit and stayed quiet. He figured it would just be for while he was recovering in the hospital. She gently rubbed his shoulder and sat back down, picking up her clipboard. “Luke, I’m gonna ask you some questions to try and confirm some things. Your case worker from the Department of Little Services should be here in an hour or so, but if we can handle some stuff now, that will make everything easier.” “Okay. Sure.” “Let’s start with your full name, and your date of birth.” The date didn’t really mean anything to her, but these first questions were more to get Luke in the moment and focused rather than actually confirming the information. “Luke Pascal Kepplin, born June 10th 1999.” “Mmmhm. Can you tell me your home address?” The drivers license had an address, but they weren’t sure if that was his parents’ home, or somewhere else. “I live at 159 Ritah Way, Apartment 404. Springfield is the city’s name.” Joy took a note. “Okay, that doesn’t match what we have on file, did you have the license address from a previous residence?” “Oh! No, the address on my license is where my parents live, it’s where I grew up. They live at 2468 Appreciate Drive. Pleasantview is the town where we live.” Joy made a check mark. “Great, and can you tell me your parents’ names?” “Mark and Lindsey Kepplin.” “Great. That’s a big help Luke. Before you ask any questions, I’m required let you know that only your caseworker can tell you specifics about your situation here. I can tell you that we have sent a message to the inter-dimensional embassy for your country, along with most of the personal info we confirmed here. I don’t know if your parents are aware that you’re here yet, but if they’re not, they will be very soon.” While nurse Joy had been talking, Luke had been thinking a little more clearly about his situation here, trying to remember everything he knew about the Amazon (Big) dimension. One thing that he realized might be very important is exactly where in the dimension he arrived. If he arrived in a country where they preferred to kidnap humans, he might be in a great deal of trouble, though from his interactions with Joy so far, he was cautiously optimistic. “Um, so can you tell me where I am… I mean what country I’m in?” He couldn’t hide the fear from his voice. “We’re in a country called Aquitane Luke, do you know where that is?” Joy had never met a Little who knew more than the basics of Big geography. She was preparing herself to be very impressed. “No, um is it…. Um, one of the agreement countries?” He was struggling for a polite word to ask if he was in danger. “Oh, you mean an Alliance country? Yes! Aquitane is bud, you don’t have to worry about being kidnapped, you’ll be safe here Luke.” Joy wasn’t impressed, but glad she could make him feel better. Luke breathed a sigh of relief. “Great! You don’t know when I’ll be able to go home do you? Or is that something for the case worker? How about how long I’ll have to stay in the hospital?” Now Joy was worried. Luke’s positive attitude had surprised her considering he was an Accidental Little, but now she understood that he didn’t understand. She also understood that she probably shouldn’t and couldn’t be the one to break it to him that he was stuck here. At least not yet. She hoped he wouldn’t take it too hard once he realized his reality, but knew that was unlikely. “That’s one for your caseworker Luke. As for your hospital stay, the doctor will have to check you over, but he’s said you were looking pretty good, so I can’t imagine it will be too long.” “Ya know, I know you just woke up, but I bet a quick nap before the caseworker gets here would make you feel better. You still seem a bit groggy. Can I bring you something to drink?” Luke didn’t feel sleepy, just physically tired. He figured he’d be polite. “Um sure, a glass of water would be great. I guess I could rest a bit.” Joy left the room and came back quickly with a sippy cup holding about a pint of water. Joy knew he wouldn’t be overjoyed about the sippy cup, but figured he should start getting used to a few small bits of Littlehood. “Hey Luke, here’s your water. I know it’s in a sippy cup, but most of our Little, erm human patients are regressed, so policy is that you drink either from a sippy cup or a bottle.” Luke cringed theatrically, but he didn’t really seem that bothered. “I figured you’d prefer the sippy cup.” “Uh… yeah thanks. I’ll try and nap a bit. Will you be here when the caseworker comes?” Luke really liked Joy, and was a bit smitten. Not in a romantic way, Joy was clearly much older than he was, though relatively attractive for her age, emotionally, Luke just felt extremely comfortable around her, and liked that she was thinking about things that would make him feel more comfortable. “I probably will be here, unless the caseworker doesn’t want me to be sweetie. But you don’t need to worry, even if I’m not here, you’ll be safe, I guarantee it.” Joy figured she’d be there because when they broke the news that he’d be stuck here, they’d probably need someone to administer diazepam once he had his breakdown. Part 2 Steve Barnwell didn’t really like dealing with Accidental Littles; in general he liked Littles a lot, and he wouldn’t have worked for DLS otherwise, but he wasn’t infatuated like a lot of people, and dealing with an Accidental Little was always painful. In his not-so-extensive experience, nearly every Accidental Little was a nightmare to handle: pretty much none of them knew about dimensional sickness, and the general opinion of Bigs back in the Little’s dimension wasn’t really positive (something that would probably stun most Little parents here: Bigs were more or less thought of as monsters by everyone except for a very small subset of people). Eventually Accidental Littles were usually able to find their niche, but it often took quite a long time, and quite a bit of pain. The other major challenge with Accidental Littles was finding them adoptive parents. Generally, prospective parents aren’t really interested in helping a Little who’s stuck here involuntarily, and the Littles themselves often aren’t satisfied with having so few choices in adoptive parent, not that they want one anyway. Right now, for Luke, there was only one reasonable option, and Steve actually felt that she was the best he had seen for all the Accidental Little cases he had dealt with so far. He hoped that Luke would eventually appreciate how good he had it, even if he didn’t get a choice of adoptive parent. Steve stopped by the nurse’s station to talk with both the doctor and nurse before going to meet Luke. “So how’s he holding up? Has he been talking at all?” “Well his body went under a lot of stress with the travel, but his arrival in the lake wasn’t as much an issue as initially expected. He didn’t even suffer from hypothermia.” Dr. Hansen was pretty unflappable, but more focused on healing the Little’s body than really worrying about the other stuff. He figured that’s what the case worker was for. His bedside manner was calm and generally positive, but he wasn’t so much a Little’s doctor as he was just a doctor. Other than size, there weren’t that many physiological differences between Bigs and Littles. Joy spoke next. “I talked with him for a little bit a little over an hour ago, he was pretty groggy, but easy to deal with. He definitely doesn’t know what it means to be an Accidental Little. In fact, he doesn’t seem to know much about our dimension in general, though he was accommodating when I gave him a sippy cup.” Even Dr. Hansen cringed upon hearing that Luke didn’t know what it meant to be an Accidental Little. The next hour or so was going to really suck. “Let me write a diazepam script right now. Steve, do you want me to be in there when you break the news?” Joy jumped in “Actually, Luke already seemed to want me to be there when Steve was gonna meet with him. I’m fine administering the pen if necessary.” Steve smiled, “I think that’ll be really good, if he has someone he already likes and trusts, I think that will make everything a lot easier.” After picking up the pen, they walked down the hallway towards Luke’s room. Upon reaching it, Joy popped her head around the doorframe and simultaneously knocked on it. Luke had been sitting up staring into nothing, but quickly popped his head around. Joy’s tone was light and cheery to try and keep things positive, at least for the moment. “Hey Luke, your caseworker is here to chat with you. If you still want, I can stay here too?” Luke smiled, Joy had been the best part of a bad situation so far. “Yeah, you can stay.” He didn’t want to betray how nervous he was about this meeting. It was good to know that he was in an Alliance country, but having somebody who he knew was on his side was even better. Joy stepped all the way into the room and gestured behind her. A man a least a foot taller than she was stepped in at her indication. “This is Steve Barnwell. He’s your caseworker here in Aquitane.” By Luke’s accounting, Steve looked to be in his mid-thirties, he was slim, bordering on skinny, and looked to be pure business. Steve was wearing perfectly tailored slacks and light blue button-down shirt. Steve’s appearance and much less warm expression did not put Luke at ease. Steve had been wearing a business meeting smile rather than nurse Joy’s I’m happy to see you smile. Steve spoke first. “It’s nice to meet you Luke, as nurse Joy said, I’m Steve and I’ll be your caseworker here in Aquitane. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I’ll have a lot of answers, but let me get some info to you right off the bat so that we can all be on the same page.” Steve hoped that if he took control of the conversation then Luke wouldn’t be able to set himself up for a major breakdown. Pacing and tone can get you through a lot of difficult conversations. It helped that Steve didn’t really care if Luke thought of him as a friend, he just wanted the best possible outcome for both Luke and the Aquitane government. “So, you’ve been here for about three days so far. You were caught in an unanticipated rift in our dimensions’ inter-dimensional fiber, which sucked you over to our dimension. Here, your situation is called an ‘Accidental Little’, and some people will probably refer to you as such. Your arrival here was quite eventful as far as these things go: you popped out over a lake and had to be saved from drowning before we were able to get you to a hospital here in Bordeu, which by the way is the capital of Aquitane. It took quite a while to get you here, and by the time doctors determined you were safe and stable, more than 3 hours had passed since your arrival.” Steve paused for three heartbeats to see if Luke recognized the importance of that final sentence. Luke was simply listening intently. Steve decided to continue with other info before coming back to the Accidental Little situation. “We got into contact with your government on the same day you arrived, so they’re aware you’re here. It took another day for the government to get into contact with your parents, but they now know you’re here too. Apparently you lived quite far from an inter-dimensional communication station, so it’ll take another day or two before you’ll be able to talk to your parents.” Luke heaved a sigh of relief. His family knew he was here, which meant that they wouldn’t be so worried. He was looking forward to getting out of the dimension, but assumed it took some time to prepare a more standard transportation. He decided to ask. “Um, so if you’re planning for my parents to call me, will it take quite a while for me to get sent back to my dimension?” Steve and Joy shared a gulp and a look as though they were deciding who would break the news. Of course, there was no real choice. Steve replied. “Not to step around your question Luke, but do you know much about interdimensional travel?” Luke shook his head. “Okay, this is gonna be slightly technical, and a little weird, but stick with me for a second. In each of our dimensions, we are surrounded by 4th moment dimensional plasma. This plasma is unique to each individual dimension. When travelling between dimensions, one travels through 5th moment dimensional plasma. This plasma will strip you of the plasma associated with your home dimension if you aren’t protected during the trip. This is why we use the transports and medication we do when transporting between dimensions. The consequences of having your plasma stripped are significant: it causes some sickness, and is the main reason you’ve been unconscious for the last three days. Additionally, when you don’t have your own plasma layer, you get a new one within a few hours of arriving here, you now have the same plasma layer as me and Joy. In the universe’s eyes, you are from our dimension.” Luke was getting really nervous, he could kind of guess what Steve was trying to imply, but his brain wouldn’t let him believe it. “So if I were given the same protection for my return trip, I could live in my dimension, but with your dimension’s plasma right?” Steve smiled weakly. “You’d think that, and it is true for Bigs from our dimension, that they can at least travel to your dimension safely. However, having your plasma stripped has long term consequences. Your body will recognize your home dimension’s plasma and try to get back to it. However, our dimension’s plasma won’t let that happen easily; this situation puts your body under extreme stress, and rapidly causes damage at the cellular level. It’s like having a shirt, and travelling here shrunk it down to fit our dimension; bringing it back to your dimension would be like trying to unshrink it by tearing it apart and then sewing it back together. Eventually your body would have your home dimension’s plasma, but you’d be long dead by then. You won’t be leaving our dimension Luke.” Now Joy was sitting in a more active ‘ready’ position. Luke’s eyes had gotten wide, he was holding his breath. His head felt like it was being pressed under a vice. Anxiety, fear, anger all were building up inside of him. He decided he preferred anger at the moment. “That’s fucking bullshit! You guys just want to keep me! You think we don’t hear about how Amazons treat humans in your dimension. You guys must be so glad to have another human fall into your laps, you didn’t even have to work for me. You can send me back but you won’t even let me go.” Luke was panting for air. His yelling was loud enough to attract the attention of another nurse who came briskly towards the room. When Joy saw her, she subtly motioned her away. Steve responded calmly, this was going pretty well so far. Luke was angry, but hadn’t done anything wild. “You know that’s not true Luke, nobody hopes for this outcome. People don’t want to adopt someone who doesn’t want to be here. In those other countries, they alter you surgically so that you can’t talk or fight back. Doing that here is illegal, and certainly will not be happening to you.” Steve paused to let Luke have more of his say. “Adopt me?! I have parents! I have a family! I don’t need to be adopted! I had my whole fucking life ahead of me and you guys have ruined because you’re all twisted freaks who want to kidnap adults and treat them as children! I’m leaving!” At that, Luke kicked off his blanket and tried to stand up on his bed. His hospital gown had shifted off to the side, so his diaper butt and most of his front was showing clearly to Steve and Joy. His IV line was pulling at him, and he reached to try and pull it out. At this, Steve acted, in one quick step he was holding Luke’s arm to prevent him from reaching the IV. “Luke, you can’t leave the hospital yet. And we aren’t lying about the dimensional sickness. It is fairly well known even in your dimension. I can get somebody from your dimension to talk with you about it later if you’d like.” Steve’s hand was still wrapped not too tightly around Luke’s left arm, from wrist to elbow. Luke wasn’t listening at all, instead, he twisted his body around and grabbed Steve’s thumb with his right hand and tried to pull it off his arm. Luke was really strong: he was in the gym five days per week lifting and rowing, and had a body that had allowed him to easily pledge to a fraternity when he entered university, it also allowed him quite a bit of success with women. His strength was essentially useless here, Steve’s hand may as well have been made of titanium, there was no way for Luke to free himself with pure strength. Without thinking or consciously meaning to, Luke twisted a bit more, and brought his head over towards Steve’s hand. Joy knew what was about to happen, she’d dealt with littles undergoing mental breakdowns and episodes, but she was too slow to intervene, the switch that flipped Luke from quiet and concerned to loud and angry had stunned her a bit despite her ‘ready’ position, leaving her ineffectual in her chair. Luke bit Steve on the wrist, hard. His mouth was too small to do damage to major tendons, veins, or arteries, but little teeth are still sharp, and he pierced Steve’s skin, drawing blood and getting that strong metallic taste in his mouth. “Ahhgh shit! That hurts!” Steve grabbed Luke by the shoulder and pulled him away from his wrist, while still trying to keep control over his left arm. “Fuck you you fucking asshole go to fucking…” Joy finally injected the pen into his thigh, and Luke drooped back into bed. “Let’s get your wrist taken care of Steve. He got you pretty bad. Lucky you’re in a hospital.” Joy called another nurse over to get some disinfectant and bandages. “Crazy little. I’m used to these ones kicking and screaming, I didn’t think he was going to bite me. Hopefully he’s at least less violent when he wakes up. I hope we can get him adopted quickly, or at least that his parents can calm him down…” Steve was holding the bandage around his wrist even though he didn’t really need to. It didn’t hurt anymore, and there wasn’t too much blood. The big thing with bite wounds is the potential for infection, but being in a hospital allowed them to disinfect the injury almost instantly. He wasn’t mad at Luke, but mainly frustrated with the situation, Accidental littles make everyone look bad: the dimension for keeping them against their will, the country (at least in the case of the Alliance) for the same reason, especially Aquitane which didn’t allow independent littles, and finally, Accidental littles were massively uncooperative, though there were relatively few of them, the rate of return to the agency was almost five times higher than a standard adopted little. In fact, issues with the return rate on Accidental littles had caused agencies in Aquitane to institute a unique policy: If you are unable to care for the Accidental little you adopted, you will be barred from adopting any other little for life. The natural concern about this sort of rule is that it keeps the little trapped in a bad situation as well. However, experience has shown that this isn’t the case: The main changes that occur in this situation is that the big is now forced to more conscientiously evaluate how they can respect their little’s needs. The agency had previously provided substantial reading material about what sort of massive changes may have occurred in the little’s life, but often that information would go in one ear and out the other for bigs who are little crazy. That changed once the new agreement was instituted, at least once the big and little reached a critical climax point. Additionally, the reality was that after the institution of the new rule, life satisfaction for Accidental littles approached that of normally adopted unregressed littles after 3 years or so, whereas previously it took longer to approach similar levels of happiness. In order to prevent abuse from sadistic bigs who would have otherwise wanted a kidnapped little, Accidental littles also received much more frequent and thorough welfare checks than any other type of little. Part 3 Luke woke up again about an hour later. Steve was waiting in a chair near his bed browsing his cell phone. When he noticed Luke waking up, he called for Joy to join him. “Welcome back to the land of the living Luke. You sure got me good.” Steve smiled and raised his bandaged wrist into Luke’s field of view. “Please don’t do that again. If you do, we’ll have to restrain you, which will probably make you confirm all your fears about bigs and littles.” In truth, they were already supposed to have restrained him, but Steve convinced Dr. Hansen not to, explaining that it would probably cause more significant damage to Luke’s mental health than any reaction could cause to Luke’s or anyone’s physical health. “What did you guys do to me?” There wasn’t much anger in Luke’s voice, just exhaustion. Joy stepped in. “Honey, we gave you some medicine to fall asleep. You had already hurt Steve, and we were concerned you were going to hurt yourself as well. You have to remember that our number one job is to keep you safe.” “I have some more information to give you, so I’m gonna talk, and then let you ask questions at the end okay? Can you try your best to stay calm for me?” Steve looked to Luke who gave him a nod while holding a glare that communicated his deep dissatisfaction with the situation. “Okay, so you’re what we call an Accidental Little. You’re suck here, but that doesn’t mean your life has to be miserable. Our government spends considerable resources to ensure that you are adopted to a caregiver that will actively work to keep you happy and healthy.” Luke glared even harder. Steve could tell that he had taken issue with being adopted. “You will be adopted. Littles living independently isn’t a thing in Aquitane; it isn’t a thing in any country but for a select few, and they don’t allow Accidental Little immigration anyway. There are no public facilities designed for Little use. You have to remember that 99% of humans here are treated as babies or young children. Being adopted means that you will have the rights of a minor.” Luke was ready to blow up, he had only become an adult a couple years ago, now he was going to be stuck as a little kid?! Steve spoke quickly. “However, we actively search to make sure you are adopted by a caregiver who is more willing to let you express your independence. This means things like wearing much more mature clothes than what standard Little’s wear, eating more adult-style meals, having a more mature room, more mature toys and activities, maybe there won’t be restrictions on the type of television you watch, you will likely not have to use a high chair (though it’s really more convenient). All-in-all, legally you’re still their kid, but we make sure that they understand you are an adult, and desire, at least for now, to maintain most of the independence that you would have otherwise had.” Luke wasn’t ready to say anything. When Steve went through the list of differences between him and other Littles, he was simultaneously relieved and indignant. Glad that he wouldn’t be kept as a baby, but frustrated that those other things were actual possibilities. “There are some things that you aren’t going to like, beyond just the whole situation of you being here.” Steve ran his hand through his hair, he was preparing for another blowup. “You will almost certainly be expected to wear and use diapers.” Luke jerked up and interrupted. “I don’t need diapers! I don’t want to wear diapers!” “I know you don’t need diapers Luke, and conceptually your caregiver might understand that as well. However, there are no Little sized toilets or public accommodations as I said. It is honestly more dignified for both you and your caregiver to keep you in diapers rather than holding you over a toilet for your needs. It’s also something that probably won’t become that big a deal in time. This is one thing that even Accidental Littles accept without too much fuss after a relatively short period.” “So what else am I gonna hate?” Luke spat. He was still angry, but he was mostly tired and feeling more and more hopeless. He felt like he had essentially died and been sent to Hell, or at least Purgatory. “Hmm. Well you will probably have to drink from a bottle occasionally and a sippy cup nearly all the time. You will probably sleep in a crib, though maybe you can convince your Big to keep the bars down. If your Big has a job, you’ll probably have to go to daycare. Only some handle unregressed Littles, so they’ll be relatively aware of your cognition, but a lot of things will still feel infantile.” Steve shifted in his chair again, explaining how Bigs viewed Littles was always uncomfortable to a Little who didn’t want to be there. “The last, and probably biggest thing is how Bigs other than your caregiver will view you. Remember that 99% of Littles are treated as toddlers or infants. Most Bigs will view you in the same way until they interact with you. Some still will even after that, we call it ‘Little blindness’ and don’t really understand what causes it, but there are just some Bigs who can’t help see you as a toddler, no matter what you say or do.” “Wait, so you’re saying that other than my caregiver, I actually am going to be treated like a baby?” Luke was more than angry, he felt he had been lied to. They promised he would get to keep a lot of his independence, but now the caveats just kept growing. “A little bit, at first, yes. However, I’d say that most Bigs are not completely Little blind, and will treat you more maturely after interacting with you. Complete blindness is mainly an issue associated with the older generation, though some younger Bigs have it to, we think it’s at least partly biological.” Steve paused and spoke again. “But! Right now your caregiver is going through some intensive training on how to treat an Accidental Little. Part of that training is on making sure other Bigs treat you with respect, and strategies to make public outings more enjoyable for both of you.” Luke was both relieved and annoyed, it felt like every improvement had a caveat. “You mean you’ve already chosen who will take care of me? I don’t even get a say in it? What the hell!” Steve cringed. He probably shouldn’t have let it slip like that. “We have. Sometimes the Accidental Little gets a choice, but usually there is only one or two Bigs at any time applying to adopt an Accidental Little, so the choice is kind of made for you. In your case there were two applicants, including one who was specifically interested in you. However, that one was fairly Little blind, and didn’t really have the resources it took to handle this sort of unique situation. The other is a lot more open minded, and, if we’re being honest, fairly wealthy, which will probably be lot more fun for you.” Luke frowned, but for the most part agreed with Steve’s reasoning. He was a little insulted that so few Bigs wanted to adopt him, even if he didn’t want to be adopted himself. “I want to talk to my parents.” Luke was emotionally done. Joy was happy that there wasn’t another blowup, but she also really felt bad for him, it just didn’t seem like he could imagine any positives to living here. She wanted to tell him that it would be like an eternal vacation, but figured it would be insulting to his previous life. “You’ll get to talk to them tomorrow. We already have a time setup.” “Can you tell me about the person who’s gonna adopt me?” “You’ll get to meet her tomorrow too. She’s gonna chat with you parents for a bit after you do. Her name’s Erin.” Luke yawned. It was well past the time most Littles went to bed. “How about you get some sleep, and you and I can chat more tomorrow before you talk with your parents.” Steve stood from his chair and reorganized some of his files before putting them in his briefcase. “I guess I don’t really have a choice.” Joy reached over and patted his hand. Luke didn’t respond but to look up at her. His eyes were glistening with tears, but he wasn’t crying yet. He had ran out of energy to be angry, and now pure sadness was filling its hole. “My life is completely fucked, isn’t it?” Joy just patted his hand again.