diaper dimension Your Move - Chapter 18 Posted [8/21/2022]

[DiaperedPrince]

2 hours ago, Guilend said:

One that thinks they’ll win just because they’re an Amazon? ?‍♂️ 

What would the other side of the bet be, i.e. what would Izzy have to do if she lost?

1 hour ago, Quite-Tiff said:

Awsome chapter!

I really like seeing those bonus content chess games.

Glad you enjoyed it! I always like to see the behind-the-scenes stuff, so I pepper my favorite authors to make them flush out their plots and explain backstories to me. Naturally I try and do the same for y'all ?

[Guilend]

3 hours ago, DiaperedPrince said:

What would the other side of the bet be, i.e. what would Izzy have to do if she lost?

That’s what has me stumped ????

[BabyJilly_S]

Nice chapter, always love a Hunger Games reference

 

[DiaperedPrince]

8 hours ago, Guilend said:

That’s what has me stumped ????

6 hours ago, BabyJilly_S said:

Nice chapter, always love a Hunger Games reference

Thanks for the comment!

[Baby Billy]

I liked this chapter, don't understand a thing about chess but it was interesting.  One thing I have noticed though, it really does not matter what the laws are or how good the littles have it in some places there are still some amazons that think they should be treated like they are inferior and not able to handle adult things.?? 

[Sarah Penguin]

Should make portal panties for izzy with wormholes front and back so that everything she excretes goes througth them onto portal diaper locked on karen so she gets hit with izzy paired wormhyoles. Cjhange her onnce a day if she finishes her bottles of baby formula vcopleely.

[DiaperedPrince]

15 hours ago, Baby Billy said:

I liked this chapter, don't understand a thing about chess but it was interesting.  One thing I have noticed though, it really does not matter what the laws are or how good the littles have it in some places there are still some amazons that think they should be treated like they are inferior and not able to handle adult things.?? 

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

12 hours ago, Sarah Penguin said:

Should make portal panties for izzy with wormholes front and back so that everything she excretes goes througth them onto portal diaper locked on karen so she gets hit with izzy paired wormhyoles. Cjhange her onnce a day if she finishes her bottles of baby formula vcopleely.

??

[DiaperedPrince]

Chapter 16 — Meanies

“Fine. You can join the club,” Richard conceded reluctantly.

“Yay! Now get me into the Canadian Chess Open.”

“Uhh… no. Are you crazy? That’s in less than two weeks!”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And you’re a Little.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“That’s just not possible. I can’t get a Little into the CCO in two weeks! In two weeks! I can’t even get you the federation membership you need in order to join any competition!”

I put both hands on the chessboard and leaned forward dramatically. “Do you want the winner of the Open to be a VChess member, or,” I paused and grinned for effect, “a RICHMOND Chess Club member?”

From what I’d seen online, Richmond was VChess’ greatest rival, so I made sure to emphasize their competitor’s name. If it doesn’t work out here, I can always go with the other one.

“Of course one of ours, but— but what you’re asking for just isn’t possible in such a short amount of time. Look, how about I get you into the BC Open in six months’ time?”

“Twist some arms, pull some strings. I’m sure if you don’t manage, RICHMOND will. Get me into the CCO or the only place you’ll be seeing me is on podiums after demolishing your precious players.” I batted my eyes at him for effect.

Richard sighed. “Okay okay, fine.”

“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same square.” I pointed to C5. “Do you see your blunder now?” I motioned at the chessboard.

“Yeah, move 19?” He slid a finger across the top of the clock, and the pieces morphed to their position on the board just before he captured my pawn.

“Mhmm. Pawns can sometimes be the most powerful pieces on the board. Sometimes capturing one that’s seemingly hanging can lose you the game.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Your point is?”

“My point is that pawns are a really good analogy for the people that you Amazons call ‘Littles’. You often underestimate us.”

“Ok that’s enough nonsense. Get outta here.” He batted his hand as if to swat a fly.

I shrugged, hopped off the chair, and led Mike out of the room as the pieces on the chessboard reset themselves.

When we got back in the car (and I was strapped into my car seat), Mike offered to take me to a nearby seafood restaurant to celebrate my new membership, and I happily accepted.

Mike drove for some twenty minutes through downtown Vancouver, before we pulled up to a parking lot about a hundred meters from a seaside restaurant surrounded by beach. A giant neon sign beside the building identified the place as “Surf’s Delight” and advertised a large encircled flashing “We’re OPEN” underneath.

Mike parked and opened the door for me, but instead of picking me up like he’d been doing all along, he asked if I wanted to walk.

“Get some exercise, stretch your legs out?”

“Sure.”

I walked beside Mike to the restaurant across a sand-blown wooden boardwalk laid atop the sand, enjoying the cool ocean breeze that blew through my hair. If it wasn’t for my wet diaper, this walk would have been picture perfect. If only I could film this. Wait, does this cyrano have a camera? Cyrano, can you record what I see as a video?

Apparently it could, because a small red dot started blinking at the top-right corner of my vision, and a timecode started to tick to the left of it. I filmed the doors of the restaurant sliding open automatically on our approach, revealing a modern-looking, Amazon-sized setting. Like EVERY other building I’ve seen here.

“Good evening sir, how many guests in your party?” A wheeled robot waiter at the reception kiosk greeted Mike. Man, robots, AIs, and holograms were everywhere in this dimension… Whatever happened to laser weapons, hoverboards, flying cars, and all the other sci-fi tech?

“Uhh two,” Mike replied. “Booster for my date please.”

“Very good, please come with me.”

I whacked Mike.

“Don’t want a booster?”

“No… it’s not that. Why am I your ‘date’?”

He shrugged off the question.

We followed the robot between tables of diners enjoying delicious-smelling seafood that I couldn’t see, since the tables were just above my eye-level. Three turns later, we arrived at a table by an ocean-facing window, where a regular chair and a HIGHCHAIR had been placed.

“Here we are,” the hologram said.

“Umm… I recall asking for a seat booster and not a highchair for my friend?”

As if it had crashed, the robot froze for a second, then completely disappeared! It had been a hologram all this time! I was so unused to things I could touch just disappearing into thin-air in front of me that I let loose a stream of pee into the waiting padding in shock. These holograms are so good you can’t even tell if they’re real or not… They pass the visual Turing test!

As Mike looked around for another server, his face looked like he wanted to shoot someone, so I pulled at his leg to get him to relax.

“It’s fine, Mike, a highchair is no biggie, it’s not my first time in one anyway. Let’s not let this spoil our dinner?”

“Hmph… fine.”

I looked up at Mike. “Are you gonna help me up to it or what?”

“Right, sorry.”

He shook his head as he removed the tray and lifted me into the highchair. He pushed the chair up to the table and left off both the tray and the harness. Given the height at which I was now sitting at though, I didn’t want to risk the long fall, so I buckled myself up discreetly after checking that it was a standard harness that I would be able to undo later.

Another robot waiter appeared at our table shortly after Mike sat down, exposing a screen on its chest like a teletubby for us to order from. Mike got a Southeast-Asian-style chili crab platter, after claiming that this dimension’s version of TripAdvisor described crab as the restaurant’s specialty. I was about to get the same when Mike stopped me.

“Get something less spicy this time; you can try some of mine. It’s labeled four chili peppers and I’d hate to see you wind up being burnt alive or not eating anything.”

I sighed and went for crab cakes served with she-crab soup. Based on the Buffalo sauce I’d had on the Luxuria limo, I was pretty certain I could handle the heat, but I thought it was nice of Mike to care about me and didn’t push it. Mike made sure to choose the correctly sized meal for me, as I wasn’t exactly going to finish a bowl of soup half my size!

We shared some breadsticks that were served by another teletubby, with a tray instead of a screen, as we enjoyed the magnificent view. When the platters came, Mike let me say grace before we tucked into the delicious food. Mike’s humongous platter was heaped with giant crab, while mine had a bowl of soup sized more appropriately for me and two palm-sized crab-cakes that would be more than filling for me. My silverware was thankfully also sized correctly!

As promised, Mike offered me a massive crab leg smeared in chili sauce, before he ate any of it. I happily ate it out of the shell, slurping up all the sauce. The heat was refreshing, and all it did was make my cheeks a little flushed!

Mike grinned at me, “Huh, I guess they didn’t make it spicy enough.”

He grabbed a pincer and tried it with some sauce himself. When the spiciness of the marinara hit him, his eyes shot wide open!

“Look who can’t handle their heat now,” I smirked and stuck my tongue out at him.

He wagged a finger at me and declared, “Oh I can handle it alright. You are one crazy Little though. Every other one I’ve met would be sobbing after tasting a drop of this. You know, they put this stuff on kids’ fingers to get them to stop sucking their thumbs?”

“Maybe it’s because of how big the peppers probably are here? The smaller the pepper, the less spicy it is. I’m used to eating smaller ones back home?” I reasoned.

“Hmm… could be. Fact of the matter is that we have GOT to use you to swindle some people.”

“How? Bet them I can eat spicy food?”

“You could probably handle spicier than most Amazons if your theory is correct. Could even just enter a spicy food eating contest against them!”

I batted my eyelids and mewled softly, “I would never win against a big bad Amazon!”

Mike doubled over laughing. “You could win a Stanley with that performance; they’d never see through it!”

“What’s a Stanley?” I was confused.

“Oh, sorry. It’s an award given to the best actors and movies every year?”

“Oh, an Oscar. Thanks.”

“Oscar? What’s the etymology of that?”

I shrugged, “The statue looked like someone’s uncle or something?”

I spent the rest of the meal occasionally stealing more chili sauce from Mike’s plate to go with my crab cakes, all while enjoying the soup. It was all delicious, and I would happily return! When we were both full, Mike had the leftovers boxed and paid the bill using his cyrano.

I unbuckled myself before he freed me from the highchair, and got a nice stroll beside him back to the car again. He drove back in light traffic as I watched the sun set behind us. When we got home, I ran upstairs to my room to start practicing for the CCO.

I installed an open-source chess program and an opening book, and started studying various positions. Before I knew it, several hours had passed, and Mike came in to tell me it was bedtime. He changed a very wet diaper off me, and carried me over to the shower without bothering to put any clothes back on me.

I’d been blown away when I experienced Mike’s shower for the first time last night. He’d assured me that smart showers like his were common in this dimension, but even after using it once already, I was still in awe at the comfort it provided.

Mike put me down inside the shower and stepped out. He’d reassured me that my cyrano was waterproof last night, so I didn’t bother taking it off before turning on the water.

“Start shower.”

Hundreds of tiny nozzles in the roof of the shower blasted water for a second, then all but a circle in the middle stopped. After waiting for a moment for the water to stabilize to the temperature and pressure I’d set in my roomd config, I stepped into the circle. Jets from opposing shower walls sprayed water at me, alongside the ceiling nozzles, which turned on and off depending on where I stepped such that I would always be showered.

The jets in the walls stopped, and a beep rang out notifying me to close my eyes. My body was then sprayed with foamy body wash and my hair with shampoo. I lathered up my hair, before the jets started up again and cleanly rinsed me off. Then, the shower finished, and I stepped out into the wind tunnel. I hated this part, because the turbofans blasting air at me were incredibly loud. I quickly jammed my fingers into my ears to stop myself from going deaf!

When the jet engines finally stopped, I was feeling rather exhausted. Mike gave me a hug and dressed me in a fuzzy footed sleeper. I sleepily held my arms up to be picked up, and dozed off before my head even hit the pillow!

***

The rest of the week passed by rather uneventfully. Izzy mostly slept in, lazed around the house, and played with her cyrano and my VR simulation software. I went to work and caught up on some personal projects like abstracting feelings for Max. I made sure Izzy got in some chess studying every day as well. If she was going to win this tournament, she had to devote the time to it.

On Friday, Richard from VChess called me back to let us know that Izzy’s membership and CCO enrollment had successfully gone through as promised. She was wearing a footed sleeper when I shared the news with her. When she jumped for joy, she slipped on landing, ending up with her padded butt planted on the hardwood floor. Accompanied by an “Oomph!”, her frustrated, embarrassed, and slightly hurt face was the cutest thing I’d ever seen!

On Saturday morning, I woke up to Max telling me I had a call.

“Good morning, Mike! I have Kyrie Hopper on the line, she wants to tell you about a new project of hers.”

“Sure, patch her through.”

“Morning Ky, what project warrants interrupting my meticulously manicured sleep schedule?” I joked, stifling a yawn.

“Mikey! Oh you. It’s past eleven! If you aren’t up yet, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life.”

“Not everyone is like you, getting up at 6am on weekends. You know that, right?”

“Yeah yeah. Anyway, remember that biocomputing project I was heading?’

“Oh yeah, the one at Butchart?”

“Precisely. That’s almost ready for a public beta, you wanna come have a look today?”

“Sure! Can I bring a friend?”

“Course! The more the merrier! Your friend can’t go yapping about this to Aiken though, he’ll go ballistic!”

“Of course she won’t, I promise.”

“Ooh, girlfriend?” I could almost hear her grinning.

“Umm… not quite. You’ll see when we get there. See ya soon!”

“Later, gator!”

 

Three and a half hours later, Izzy and I arrived in Victoria via drive-on-drive-off ferry. I let the autopilot drive the rest of the way to the Butchart Gardens, as I wasn’t used to driving on the Island. At the staff gate, a vehicle barrier stopped the car from proceeding further.

“Good morning, sir. Who are you visiting today?” A bored-sounding female voice came out of some speakers on the side of the guardhouse.

“Morning. I have an invitation from Kyrie Hopper?”

“Hmm… I don’t see you on my authorized list here. Give me a moment to clear that with her.”

I nodded and switched my car back to manual drive. A few seconds later, the authorization apparently went through, as the guard leaned out of the service window with a smile and the barrier lifted.

“Welcome to the Butchart Gardens, Mr. Beneventi, and apologies for the holdup. Doctor Hopper is expecting you, just take a left up ahead and you’ll see her lab. Have a wonderful visit!”

“Thanks, you too,” I blurted out.

I cringed at my response as I drove according to her directions. I could hear giggles coming from the backseat, and a small voice mocking my err.

“Have a wonderful visit! You too!” The second part was said in a deep voice struggling to contain laughter.

I glared in the rear view mirror, “As if you’ve never done that before.”

“Have not!”

I sighed and parked the car. The first thing I did when I turned off the engine was open the back door and launch a tickle attack on Izzy in retaliation. I let her shriek and squirm for a few seconds, before I let up and picked her up out of her car seat.

“Meanie! You made the bunnies on my diaper disappear,” She whined.

“Your fault for teasing me,” I smirked, pushing her dress back down to cover her diaper again.

I put her down, shut the car door, and walked to the lab entrance with Izzy trailing behind me. The door buzzed open for us automatically, and I spotted Kyrie a few meters away down the hall, getting some water from a fountain. She capped her thermos and moved to hug me when she saw me.

“Mikey! Been a while since I last saw you!”

“Hey yourself. You’d see me more often if you weren’t cooped up in a lab all day!”

“Well said,” she laughed as she ended her embrace and knelt down to greet Izzy.

“And who’s this distinguished young lady?”

When most Bigs say that, their voice drips with condescension, but Kyrie only sounded sincere.

“Ky, meet Isabelle Green. She’s a portal Little I rescued from the States. Izzy, this is Doctor Kyrie Hopper, Chief Scientist of the Canadian Biocomputational Research Lab here at Butchart. We’ve been friends since our first year at university.”

“Nice to meet you, Doctor Hopper!”

“Please, call me Kyrie. It’s nice to meet you too, Isabelle. I rarely see Mike hang out with anyone but colleagues nowadays!”

“Izzy, please. So, you make computers from cells?”

“That’s part of it, yep,” She nodded and smiled. “We grow computers.”

===========================================================

Sorry for the late post, I've had an exhausting week. Please cheer me up with comments and likes ?

[Guilend]

Comments and likes. 
Interesting concept, growing computers. “Just a little water and boom you have a computer in the spring” just joking. I love this chapter. I love how she handled that chess guy. 

[DiaperedPrince]

14 minutes ago, Guilend said:

Comments and likes.

Thanks!! Didn't expect any at 2am and you just made my night a little better ?

16 minutes ago, Guilend said:

Interesting concept, growing computers. “Just a little water and boom you have a computer in the spring”

Money tree moment?

16 minutes ago, Guilend said:

just joking. I love this chapter.

Aww, thanks ❤️

16 minutes ago, Guilend said:

I love how she handled that chess guy. 

Izzy is the cutest, adorablest, bossman out there.

[BabyJilly_S]

Hmm interesting, growing computers, kind of like the human brain I guess, or maybe the neural gel packs from Star Trek Voyager

As for Izzy, she may be getting a little full of herself, I  hope that doesn't come back to bite her on the ass....

And spices! what is it with these littles and spices  

[BabySofia]

? Can't wait to see Izzy take on the big bad Amazons!

[DiaperedPrince]

17 hours ago, BabyJilly_S said:

Hmm interesting, growing computers, kind of like the human brain I guess, or maybe the neural gel packs from Star Trek Voyager

As for Izzy, she may be getting a little full of herself, I  hope that doesn't come back to bite her on the ass...

We'll see very soon1

17 hours ago, BabyJilly_S said:

And spices! what is it with these littles and spices  

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

12 hours ago, BabySofia said:

? Can't wait to see Izzy take on the big bad Amazons!

Wait till you see her shoot some up! ?

[Baby Billy]

Great chapter, I love stories where the little is treated nice.  I knew you where going to work the spicy food in here, just didn't think it would be so soon.

[DiaperedPrince]

5 minutes ago, Baby Billy said:

Great chapter, I love stories where the little is treated nice.  I knew you where going to work the spicy food in here, just didn't think it would be so soon.

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

[Sarah Penguin]

Why am I picturing a cplatypus shaped biocomputer doing all normal platypus stuff?

[Baby Billy]

13 hours ago, DiaperedPrince said:

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

When I wrote that comment I wasn't thinking about that.  BabySofia has used that story line in 3 of her works so far.  What I meant was that in one of your comments on LCW  you said you were going to add a spicy food challenge in, so I was surprised to see it so soon.  I also see a lot of the traits that Stacy had in Izzy.?

[diaperboymi]

AWESOME chapter!!!  I don't  understand the chess moves but Love where this is going.   Great job ??????

[DiaperedPrince]

17 hours ago, Sarah Penguin said:

Why am I picturing a cplatypus shaped biocomputer doing all normal platypus stuff?

*giggles* That would be cute!

13 hours ago, Baby Billy said:

When I wrote that comment I wasn't thinking about that.  BabySofia has used that story line in 3 of her works so far.  What I meant was that in one of your comments on LCW  you said you were going to add a spicy food challenge in, so I was surprised to see it so soon.

I know, I made the LCW comment for that reason, I didn't say you were thinking that.

13 hours ago, Baby Billy said:

I also see a lot of the traits that Stacy had in Izzy.?

I'd be lying through my teeth if I said Stacy wasn't a massive inspiration for Izzy. But I actually lead a remarkably similar life to Stacy. All the hacking, dolphin-loving, coding, being a college student... short of being a girl and going to the other dimension I'm basically Stacy. So when I bsaed a large part of Izzy (and Mike, too) on my own life... well it's similar to basing on Stacy. I remember reading Exchanged for the first time and stopping literally every 5 minutes going "holy crap has@BabySofia been writing about me?!" ?

12 hours ago, diaperboymi said:

AWESOME chapter!!!  I don't  understand the chess moves but Love where this is going.   Great job ??????

Thanks! I highly encourage you check out the link to the chess game at the end of the previous chapter, it'll help make a lot more sense ?

[Sarah Penguin]

chess print diapers and chess rattle sets where the board is actually a  play mat and all the  chess pieces make different rattle sounds..could make it of super soft soft stuff it is safe for newborns and still be a usable chess set.,

[DiaperedPrince]

15 hours ago, Sarah Penguin said:

chess print diapers and chess rattle sets where the board is actually a  play mat and all the  chess pieces make different rattle sounds..could make it of super soft soft stuff it is safe for newborns and still be a usable chess set.,

Chess rattle set and a plush chess set for a playpen sound a bit overboard for Mike to give Izzy (hmm but maybe as a joke?), but a chess-themed onesie/footed sleeper might be up in play? ?

[Sarah Penguin]

7 hours ago, DiaperedPrince said:

Chess rattle set and a plush chess set for a playpen sound a bit overboard for Mike to give Izzy (hmm but maybe as a joke?), but a chess-themed onesie/footed sleeper might be up in play? ?

While reading your last update I got in my head the rattle chess set and chess diapers and thought were cute so shared them

[DiaperedPrince]

12 hours ago, Sarah Penguin said:

While reading your last update I got in my head the rattle chess set and chess diapers and thought were cute so shared them

Cute indeed, I've written them down. ?

[DiaperedPrince]

Just a quick update: I'm out of town this week so I may or may not be able to post depending on if I can find time to edit Chapter 17. Chapter 18 is the last full chapter I've written, (I've written up to the first paragraph of chapter 19 and come up with the chapter title), and I don't forsee having time to write any more this year, since school starts again the last week of August (I gotta work hard so I'll grow up smart like Izzy! ?) so further chapters/releases will have to wait until at least February 2023. But yeah you'll get 2 more chapters (17/18) soon™️. Bai for now!

[DiaperedPrince]

Chapter 17 — Walk in the Park

My mouth fell open as Kyrie started walking us down the hallway.

“You GROW computers??”

“Yep! We genetically engineer plants to perform both specific and general computations, for a variety of use-cases.”

She looked at a camera set in the wall for a retina scan, before the glass doors opened automatically and we followed her into her lab. The modern space looked more like a conservatory than a lab, with a lofty ceiling, large skylight spanning its full length, and indoor palm trees. However, the banks of desk-lamp-sized plants, wires running everywhere, and floating holograms definitely made it a lab!

“How does the computational mechanism work? Is it cell-level? What are the input/output streams?”

“Great questions, I can see why Mike brought you now,” she giggled gleefully. “Basically, groups of cells in the plant act as ALUs — Arithmetic Logic Units — to perform simple computations like addition, subtraction, conjunction, disjunction, bit shifts… every single n-bit calculation you can imagine. They use a combination of bioelectrical signals and enzymes to communicate with other cells that store data temporarily, and finally wires tap changes in bioelectrical voltage across parts of their stems for I/O. It’s all solar-powered through photosynthesis, and the plants even generate oxygen as a byproduct!”

“Wow!” I found myself once again lost for words. Biological computation back home was in its infancy, and growing entire plants to act as processors blew my mind.

“What’s the throughput up to?” Mike asked.

“We’ve hit two megaflops per plant in bursts, but nothing crazy yet. I think we can expect to double that by next week’s batch though. We’re still tweaking core implementation details, particularly on the inter-cellular level, to maximize power delivery.”

“Nice. How do you program it?”

“A custom assembly language called PAL — Plant Assembly Language — for now; we’ll develop support for higher-level languages and start cross-compiling popular compilers like GCC over once we get enough computing power to run a bytecode runtime environment. Our goal is to run Freax on it someday. Wanna try writing something in PAL and running it?”

“Hell yeah!”

Mike and I got a quick lesson on PAL syntax, before we got a chance to flex our assembly muscles and write some code ourselves. I noticed that the touchboard provided to me automatically reconfigured its keys to my preferred mapping when Mike sat me down in front of it.

I wrote a simple Fibonacci sequence program, which would take a number n as an input and output the nth Fibonacci number. Each successive number was calculated by adding the previous two, with the first two being ‘1’, so I got a bit of a workout implementing recursion in assembler. I made sure to add a couple of sanity checks to short-circuit my code and exit if weird inputs were provided, before sending it over to Kyrie.

Mike wrote FizzBuzz, another classical programming problem, which was based on the children’s game that they apparently called ‘FloofBoop’ here. The plant would print numbers starting from 1, replacing any number divisible by 3 with ‘Floof’, any number divisible by 5 with ‘Boop’, and any number divisible by 15 with ‘FloofBoop’. The assembler didn’t support strings, so Mike used -1 for Floof, 0 for Boop, and -10 for FloofBoop instead.

Kyrie typed a few commands to feed our programs to the nearest two plants. We were pleasantly surprised when the output holograms hovering above them appeared to show both programs working on the first try! Not everyday when the first thing you write in assembly works on the first try! Kyrie took advantage of one of my sanity checks to halt my code by inputting -1 after trying a couple different numbers, exiting the program.

However, Mike hadn’t built in any triggers to stop it, so she had to terminate it manually. To our dismay, as soon as she did that, her console froze! Mike’s code had somehow caused the computer to stop responding to interrupts, so the plug would have to be pulled to reset it! However, being a plant powered by photosynthesis, the computer couldn’t have its power shut down without killing it!

“Umm… how do we fix this?” Mike asked sheepishly.

“Well we could inject nanites into the plant to force the interrupt to propagate, but it would probably be a more valuable learning experience to scrap it, dissect it, and figure out why the interrupt didn’t trigger. Plus, growing a replacement plant will only take a week, and they’re a lot cheaper than nanites!”

“Oh, okay then. Sorry for destroying your plant.”

“Don’t apologize, Mikey,” she smiled and rubbed his shoulder. “Think of it as destructive testing.”

Just then, a hologram popped up with a message for Kyrie that she was expected in an adjacent lab.

“Guys, I’ve gotta go. I’ll walk you out. Izzy, it’s nice to meet you, hopefully our paths will cross again. Mikey, always a pleasure to see you in the flesh!”

We followed Kyrie back to the entrance, where the two exchanged la bise, and Mike wished her luck on her research. Moments after we parted ways, Kyrie stopped in her tracks and called out to us.

“Oh by the way, please do enjoy the rest of the gardens. I had security add you to the list of authorized visitors, you can roam the grounds free of charge at any time.”

“Oh wow, thanks Ky! You’re the best! We’ll look around for sure.”

***

After barely an hour of walking through the various beautiful plant exhibits on display in the Gardens, Izzy whined that she was bored and wanted to go home. She held her arms up for me to pick her up, so I did, and started briskly walking her back to where we’d parked. However, just as we passed a small square by the main gate, Izzy forgot all about going home.

“Put me down, put me down!” She squealed, whacking my arm, “Look at the size of those pieces!”

I followed her gaze to a giant chess set, and laughed as I set her back down on the ground. The instant her little light-up runners hit the ground, she sprinted over to the giant chess set. I noted that her LittleProtect ankle band was barely visible underneath her sock, and didn’t seem to encumber her movements at all.

I went after her in much less of a hurry, and watched as she picked up a pawn that was almost her own height and shuffled awkwardly with it to get it to its starting place. It didn’t seem to be too heavy though, as she looked to be struggling more with its size than its weight. When she tried to move a queen that was a full head taller than her and almost toppled it over, I steadied it for her.

“Careful there, little miss chess nut, you don’t want to bowl over the Queen! She’ll have you arrested on charges of treason!”

Izzy giggled and stuck out her tongue at me.

“Why don’t you go reset the rest of the pawns while I take care of the pieces?”

“Kay,” she nodded enthusiastically, hugging up another oversized pawn.

When we got the giant board set, Izzy insisted I play the white pieces this time, and I accepted. I was just about to make the first move when a young Amazon boy, about eight or nine, and his mother, a nine-foot tall Big, came up to us.

“Let my son play your daughter? You can help her move the pieces, it’ll be fun?”

I glanced at Izzy, who nodded at me, so I shrugged and responded, “She’s my friend, not my daughter, but sure, why not.”

I turned to Izzy and squatted down. “Want a piggyback ride?”

She nodded again and carefully climbed on my back. We let the boy make the first move, and watched as he shuffled his kingside knight between two pawns to c3. I played out Izzy’s response of pawn to d5, which she called out loud. Just like that, the boy and I took turns moving the pieces. After just a few moves, I could tell that Izzy had started going easy on him, as he started struggling to find good moves. In fact, even I, a chess novice compared to Izzy, was able to catch a blunder from him, but she didn’t accept his meaningless sacrifice. I could tell, as the middlegame transitioned into a king and pawn versus king endgame, that Izzy had calculated and gone as easy as possible against him. In fact, she was setting it up so that he had a fair opportunity to draw the game!

However, the young boy didn’t know how to play that endgame, and Izzy finished him off three moves after promoting her pawn. When her son failed to stop Izzy from promoting, the mother started getting visibly angry. When Izzy said “good game” to the boy, the woman was absolutely livid.

“SHE CHEATED!!! THERE’S NO WAY A LITTLE CAN BEAT MY SON, HE TAKES CHESS LESSONS FROM A PRIVATE TUTOR!!”

She flagged down a passing groundskeeper, jumping up and down and waving her arms furiously.

“SHE’S NOT PLAYING FAIR!!! I WANT HER OUT OF HERE!! I WANT A REFUND FOR MY ADMISSION!!! AHHHHHH!!”

All her commotion was attracting stares from all over the square, and the employee looked at her uncomfortably, choosing to quickly walk away a moment later. The mother continued to scream random insults and accusations at Izzy and I, while all three of us, her son included, stood there watching her charade speechlessly. Two minutes later, security finally arrived, by which time the woman was rolling around on the grass like a soccer player trying to get a foul, complete with tears streaming down her face.

“Ma’am, what seems to be the problem here?” The lead security officer asked her while eyeing us.

“They ganged up on us with a nasty scheme, made us fall into their trap, and bullied us! She,” she thrusted a finger at me, “CHEATED in the game to beat my precious baby boy, and they stood there laughing at us afterwards! You’re here to kick them out and refund me my admission fee, RIGHT?!!”

“Uhh, no ma’am. We’re here to ask you to grow up and stop causing a scene, or we’ll have to escort YOU out of the Gardens out of respect for our more courteous visitors,” she nodded at Izzy and I.

“NO!!!!! I WILL NOT!!! YOU HAVE TO THROW THEM OUT BEFORE I WILL STOP!!! THEY’RE PLOTTING ON KILLING MY SON!!! I’M GOING TO GET RAPED BY THAT ASSHOLE!!!”

“Ma’am, this is your last warning. Stop yelling and get up, or we will have to escort you and your son out of the Gardens.”

“NOOO!!! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME YOU FILTHY PIGS!! STOP!!! I’M ALLERGIC TO YOU!! I’M GOING TO DIE!!!!!”

The four security officers nodded at each other. One of them produced a giant locking pacifier and shoved it in the woman’s mouth, suppressing her screams to unintelligible gibberish with a twist of the valve in the button. The four of them then synchronously manhandled the woman, each officer at a limb, towards the front gate!

Izzy giggled when they produced the giant locking pacifier, and broke the silence when the woman was carried away, her son following close behind them.

“You know, in my dimension, people like her are called ‘Karens’.”

“Really? Like the nasty little devil that got you when you first came here?” I discreetly checked her diaper, finding her quite soaked.

“Uh-huh. A burden on society, really.”

I nodded my agreement. “You ready to head home then? You’re soaked.”

“Yeah. Can we get a photo here first though? To remember our trip by?”

I laughed. “Sure thing, princess.”

***

The next morning, Mike invited me to church with him, and I accepted. When we got there, Mike helped me out of my car seat, but directed me to walk beside him instead of picking me up. When we went in, the small congregation of about a hundred and fifty was singing an angelic hymn that I’d never heard before. I saw quite a few Littles sitting in the front row of pews, which sat on a raised platform with a set of Little-sized steps leading up to it. I realized that, apart from a Little family touring the gardens with us, they were the first free Littles I’d ever seen!

The platform put the Littles on the same level as the rows behind them, but I neither wanted to sit at the front nor wanted to leave Mike. Instead, I followed him to a middle section, near an emergency exit. Mike didn’t seem surprised at all that I was behind him, and he helped me onto the pew after sitting down himself. Surprisingly, the pew was padded, unlike those of every church I’d seen back home. Do they not care if people fall asleep here? Unfortunately, since it was sized for Amazons, all I could see while sitting on it was the back of the pew in front of me!

Luckily, since we were at the end of the row, there was a pretty wide armrest on the other side of Mike, so I clambered across his lap onto it. It served as a nice bench for me, and I could even lean against Mike’s shoulder were I to get tired.

“Are we late? Why is everyone singing already?” I whispered to Mike, eyeing the lyrics scrolling on a hologram filling up the sanctuary in front of a wooden cross.

“Oh, there’s a fifteen minute arrival period, during which they start some hymns so people don’t have to dawdle around. Then, there’s another half-hour of worship, followed by an hour-long sermon. After that, there’s a special event today,” he itinerarized.

“Ohh.” It finally dawned on me why he’d dressed me in a t-shirt and sweatpants that morning, instead of one of the several nice dresses that I now owned, and why the rest of the congregation was similarly dressed. I’d brushed it off as their custom here, but apparently it wasn’t!

When the last hymn finished, the Amazonian pastor prayed, before plastic packages of pre-broken bread and wine were passed around.

“Nice of them to add padding to these pews,” I whispered to Mike, as I let some pee out into my own padding.

He looked surprised. “Your dimension doesn’t have that?”

“Nope, something about not wanting people to fall asleep…”

“That’s cruel. Not that you’d mind though, you’ve got your own!” He joked while sneaking a finger past the leg gatherer of my diaper to check its state.

My face crimsoned several shades redder, and I wanted to punch him, but we were handed Communion sets just then. I instead said a quick prayer before opening it and munching on a big piece of unleavened bread. To my surprise, the wine was actually wine, instead of the grape juice I was used to! What was a mouthful of it to Mike amounted to a full glass for me!

I looked at the wine, at Mike, and back at the wine. His eyes were closed in prayer, so I figured what the heck and downed it in a few gulps with the rest of the bread. It’s not like I’m getting drunk from a single glass anyway. I wonder what the Littles at the front are getting…

When Mike opened his eyes and took his own Communion, he realized what had transpired and went from wide-eyed to slightly concerned to finding it hilarious.

“In case you’re wondering, Littles usually sit up front and get much smaller portions…”

I covered my mouth for a small burp. “I’m okay,” I smiled at him.

“Good morning ladies and gents,” the pastor began, preempting any further comments from Mike. “I see everyone is dressed appropriately for our special event after the meeting. Good on you all for remembering, and shame on Dexter for forgetting. Just kidding, you can still participate, of course.”

The congregation laughed in unison, and Dexter raised a fist in triumph for effect, revealing the sleeve of the suit he was wearing.

“As the weather outside turns warm, I’m sure many of you need to start trimming the trees in your yards,” he continued once the laughter died down. “What would you do if you found Johann in one of your trees, eating figs?”

He winked at Johann, a Little in the front row, as some more laughter broke out here and there.

“Well, let’s see what Jesus did, when he met a similar situation with Zacchaeus the tax collector. Let’s turn to Luke, Chapter 19, and read the first few verses together.”

I cringed in horror as I felt an imminent urge to poop, and realized that the rude sounds I was about to make were going to echo through the whole nave!

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Hope you enjoyed the latest edition, and please send likes and comments (hey, even criticism!) my way! ?