“Jordan, you should think about Peter 3:10, which says whoever desires to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.” Sara replied, “As that kind of language is reserved solely for Charity Stevens,”
Jordan looked up at Sara as the group thankfully went back to the discussion for the book. The fact she was admonishing him for swearing and basically forbidding him from using any language like that reminded him of when he was back at home. His mom very much was the same way. However, now that Sara mentioned it, he hadn’t heard her or her friends use any kind of language like that. At least not that he could recall. If they had, it wasn’t prevalent.
They continued to discuss for a few more minutes before Jordan heard Emily pull the class’s attention back to the front. It was still odd to be sitting on Sara’s desk. It’s been almost a week, but, in his mind, he should still be weighing the desk down, and she should be struggling to move him around. However, that doesn’t seem to be how the world exists anymore.
“Ms. Hottie is so annoying. I don’t know what you ever saw in her.” Sara mumbled quietly as she continued to take notes. Sara could feel herself getting more annoyed, so she moved her hand and started petting Jordan. Petting him somehow comforted her, and she could feel her annoyance waning. As she continued to pet Jordan.
Ms. Brooks continued with her lecture, but as she turned from the board, her gaze ran across Sara. Sara was one of her best students, which was bothersome. She always did her work; she always knew the right answers. She studied the materials. Most teachers would want a dozen Sara’s in their class. However, seeing her boyfriend, well, former boyfriend, trapped in her custody made her sick. She knew she had made a mistake when she broke up with him. She did focus on her career as she had just spent all that money and time on getting her degree. However, she learned too late that none of that made her as happy as her time with Jordan.
Now as she looked at him helplessly on Sara’s desk. Lorded over by her. She had met her mother at parent/teacher conferences a couple of times now. They were very conservative in their beliefs. They believed that people who contracted with Smallara were lesser. That they somehow weren’t people anymore because of their size and disability.
As much as she hated to admit it. Sara somehow ended up falling into the middle of progressive and conservative. She understood they were still intelligent people, but where she goes wrong is that she views them as people beneath her.
That sole point made all the difference in the world. She had spent the last few days scouring for some way to free Jordan from her. However, every law seemed to work against the little. The laws were made to empower the guardian which only led to further frustration as she looked at Jordan being petted by Sara like some kind of lap dog. She dresses him up in very preppy styles that she knows Jordan would never buy on his own. She was transforming him into basically her little show doll.
“Okay, class, you can spend the last five minutes getting a head start on tomorrow’s reading,” Emily said as she tried to busy herself with preparing for her next class to take her mind off Sara and the guilt of not being able to help Jordan more.
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1) “However, now that Sara mentioned it, he hadn’t heard her or her friends use any kind of language like that” wouldn’t calling him an “underbred” count as “that kind of language”, seeing as how it’s literally a derogatory slur (as we learnt) it’s even banned from the school’s PA system.
2) have to sympathise with Emily’s struggle here.
3) I love how Emily is still Ms. Hottie to the arseholes.
4) “She dresses him up in very preppy styles that she knows Jordan would never buy on his own” you have literally only seen him in manditory school uniform since he shrank, calm down a little bit on that aspect.
5) I like that the laws are being shown from a different perspective that Sara.
6) I’m not sure Sara is a “progressive” as Emily thinks, she’s quite the obedient government puppet.
1)It is a slur, but its also commonly used amongst younger generations. I’m not sure it would count the same way.
2) She’s trying to help her friend. Failing, but trying.
3)She is forever Ms. Hottie now.
4)Sara isn’t shy about social media. You know she is looking at Sara and her friends social feeds for anything she could use. She’s definitely seen Jordan dressed outside of school.
5)I wanted to illustrate that point a bit. So its not just through Sara’s lens.
6)She said in the middle of progressive and conservative. I don’t know if government puppet is quite fair. As her beliefs aren’t unique for this world. Its not like she is in some kind of cult. A large percentage of the countries population believes similar. They voted in a president who has a platform that littles are less then people.
It’s clear that people of this world hold these beliefs. While there are those who disagree. It’s not a controversial take or anything to have.
1) I can think of a few other slurs that could be applied to, I’m still thinking she’s frequently using the same language she’s barred him from.
2) I know maybe her and Dani could work together contact Alison for extra assistance
3) I’m sure Jordan loves that, lol.
4) oh, ok I didn’t realise Jordsn had been making appearances there.
5) yeah, it helps the story like that.
6) my point was she’s only ever so slightly better than Maisy or Dayton, but her beliefs are copy pasted from what little we know the government has said. The fact that their a little rights ralleys happen across the country implies that a significant portion of the population is against the government, which would make the take controversial by definition.
One thing that has been bothering me for a while is the way society is structured in this story. From what I have heard millions of people have been shrunken. Families, friends, just would not stand for what the government is doing and how they are behaving. Having voters pissed off at you from both sides of the isle is nothing that politicians want if they want to keep their jobs. I think the pressure would be tremendous to change things, and I think court cases would be fast and furious to change these policies. In this episode, the fact that Jordan, trapped by the concept of guardianship by some random non-relative, non-former friend is something that people would be fighting against.
As far as the expensive technology goes for collars or chips. Japanese or Chinese manufacturers would be putting out cheap alternatives very quickly to compete, especially for such a large market.
As for training at handling tinies. People who have been trained would want to train others for cheaper than the gvt. charges. There would be competition to reduce training costs, and there would be pressure on the gvt. to allow and certify this training, the same way that people can go to driving schools and then get tested by the RMV.
This world building in the story just hasn’t been making a lot of sense to me given the scale of the problem.
1) only 7.5 percent of the population is vulnerable, about 1 in 13 people so yeah likely tens of millions.
2) Asukafan2001 has mentioned that in some countries the Smallara has had devastating consequences, so it would be reasonable for people to accept that the measures the US government is taking are avoiding that, bare in mind the US had nine years of watching the rest of the works deal with it before it showed up there.
3) while some family members would likely cause a problem, the above point likely stops open rebellion being organised, there are rallies but it’s not to the level of insurrection yet, plus much of the government propaganda makes it look like these measures are keeping littles safe, and even if one doesn’t like the how, the why is capable of swaying them.
4) Asukafan2001 has confirmed that little custody battles do occur in thus universe. Emily likely wouldn’t have a case as his ex though, had they still been together it may have been different.
5) the little worthy tech already has cheaper alternatives that what Jordan’s wearing, except his chip which was free., it’s also possible the government could block the sales of foreign variants.
6) I think only the government can provide guardian training, alumni likely can’t open up their own schools or give out the certification.
7) I agree that not everything lines up properly sometimes, I like to assume it’s because we’re only seeing the parts that are relevant and that the other bits are out there filling in blanks and fixing plot holes.
When it comes to world building there a few things at work. One, this is my first time doing something of this scale and I’m learning as i go. So it could be better. Two, it has been stated that the level of devastation Smallara has caused has left countries completely wiped off the map as they fell into the total chaos and open rebellion. I haven’t focused on that as the story is focused on the Reeves family so you are only seeing things from there snippet of the world. Similar to how the events that are going on in Gaza in the real world right now. They don’t directly effect a lot of people so while people have an opinion of what is happening and feel some empathy over the devastation on both sides. It’s not apart of their daily life as it doesn’t have any bearing it.
If you don’t have smallara, and none of your family is effected by it. The likelihood of people caring is diminished. There are people who do care and that is stated in that rallies happen wanting different treatment.
The U.S. Government of this world has done specific things that have been canonized in this world that make things different then the U.S. government in the real world. One thing, we learned a few hundred episodes ago congress and senate have been dissolved and morphed into entities underneath the president. Which will the presidency is still voted on its a position that wields more power.
The government is using political propaganda and desiminating information that supports its beliefs. These changes are for the best. This is what is going to keep the country in order. This is going to ensure freedom and the American way continue for generations as others have fallen and the world now looks to us as the guiding light. People have an understanding of what can happen and generally want the path that maintains them able to live a similar life to that of what they had before.
So the people who go to these rallies can easily be seen as people who are anti-government, who are anti-american. Because of how things are stated. The presidents platform is life begins at 19 inches. Thats his political slogan that won him an election before Smallara even hit the U.S. Which goes to demonstrate where a large portion of the U.S. believes.
I think part of the issues you see are twofold. One, I could do a better job at the world building. That is fair. Two, this story isn’t focused on the other side so its not represented the same. Sara hasn’t ever encountered someone who has been effected and had someone taken away. She hasn’t encountered a person who just didn’t have enough money to take care of this. Because she lives in her bubble similarly to how you and I lives in bubbles based on how and where we live and what we believe and the people we associate with. People tend to create insular bubbles that surround themselves with likeminded people. That is relatively universal trait. Is that played up here? yes, it is to an effect. Does that have a negative effect it probably does seeing how you and a few others have commented.
One mistake i made in world building is at the start I made this an alternate historical timeline so a parallel world where events and such occurred differently in some ways and the same in others. However, I think I would have been better served creating an entirely neww world and populated it while filling in the history more or even before with my current setup spending more time at the start of the story covering how we got to where Jordan was. However, those were things that weren’t done due to my inexperience of writing stories at this scale and trying to write something is more of a narrative and less of strictly fetish material. Some things are easier to correct then others without re-writes and stopping production and goign back to correct them and finding a way to make sure readers actually went back and read the rewrites to gain more clarity.
In this world Generitech is a global enterprise powerhouse that has its fingers in the pie of many facets with production facilities, distribution piplelines and scale that few can match. So the China of how its viewed in this world is a bit different then how China is today and its capabilities are different. Canonically, if someone wanted to do what you are talking about they would go to generitech as no one would be able to do it cheaper at scale without taking a loss.
I will have to swing back around and cover the rest of the points you made. As I need to leave for work and i already pushed it more then i should have timewise but i liked your question
This is something I had been struggling with slowly as things began to unfold – I don’t recall exactly when I started following though It was still double digits. All the explanations by both Asuka and Lethal are spot on. Your concerns are almost exactly how I felt for quite a while.
Certain events seemed incredibly “unrealistic / unreasonable” because as Asuka stated this is more of a parallel reality with an alternate history. Our problem is we are constantly transposing our mindsets and reality on to this one. What helps break me of that is the fact that slavery was once legal and accepted in this country in our own reality.
The expense of owning a little can go both ways in my eyes. One is obviously gov. greed. The other is the government defaulting on more money = more affluence and a better environment for the little all around, plain and simple, plus part of the $ goes to research etc… They do offer financial help for families etc. Now it gets tricky when an ENTIRE family isn’t immune such with Charity’s. I’m not gonna tear apart every little aspect but you get the point.
Now….what bothers me the most recently isn’t even THIS timeline its the “side stories” with Wexie… This is apparently in the future and Canon to this world. How that guy is treated and finding out how little’s are obtained literally through the mail in the FUTURE makes it seem like little rights somehow took a downward slope in a bad way. But atm it seems little’s in the US have it the best as it is.
Other countries as Asuka stated pretty much have come to the realization littles are more trouble then their worth unfortunately. We don’t know all those details however
So putting just a little bit of everything into perspective goes a long way. I think If I tried to re-write this in my own tone, it would be boring AF lol. I like the challenges of trying to come to grips with how the story is going, just like reading a good book. Although it is frustrating sometimes. 🙂
I fully agree with your sentiments. Especially around cost. Government greed.
Littles aren’t sent from the government to the user in the mail. Mia’s brother mailed Wexie to her. But Wexie taken to Mia’s brother by a transportation officer. Transportation’s officers jobs are to travel with the little to the initial destination.
Back from work, so I can touch on the last few points i didn’t get to. So that i can hopefully clear things up a little.
Training, was mentioned in one of the early episodes but only the government can certify a guardian. A guardian in order to be certified has to take government mandated courses.
So could Sara open up a training school yes. But everyone would still have to take the government training school regardless of any additional schooling or training they take.
The amount of people who would pay Sara or a third party of training, then still have to pay the government for classes, still pay have to pay government for filing fees, licensing fees, etc. Just makes it not financially viable. As there is no reason for anyone to pay a third party when any training they get would be additive.
I would like to add to the population statements you made that while millions of people are afflicted with Smallara its globally and not equally dispersed. The U.S. happens to have a low infection rate but not every country was so lucky.
Jordan is trapped because he verbally consented to Sara being his guardian to a government agent over the phone which then placed him as the ward of Sara Reeves to care for him in his incapacitated state.
He could have said no, and then they would have dispatched agents for pickup or if its a safe situation instructed Sara to bring him in to be taken to the government care facility similar to what Lisa went too.
While there is an argument to had that Jordan didn’t understand what he was consenting too. That point would need to be proved in court that he was under duress and coerced into forfeiting his rights. Which even if he did win would only get him placed into the facility. If Emily or Daniela or sister wanted to claim him they would have to pay filing fees and recurring licensing costs to do so.
Allison having paid all the money they had to get their parents is in no situation to pay for Jordan without taking on debt which as a minor she wouldn’t have the means to pay back or make payments towards.
Emily and Daniela don’t have means nor are they guardians. So the best they could do is get Jordan removed from Sara, But that wouldn’t prevent him from being randomly assigned to someone else while Emily and Daniela tried to gather the not only the funds but guardianship training.
The issue overall is similar to healthcare in America. People recognize its not a perfect system but its the system that exists and to change it now would be costly and require agreeance as to what a better system would be and we all know how easy it is for governments to agree on things and how quickly large sweeping changes happen and when they do happen how well they go over.
Sorry you misunderstood my point about training. My point was that training should be available by private sources. The effectiveness of the training tested by a pass/fail gvt. sponsored test, similar to how people are licensed to drive. I don’t think the gvt. having a monopoly on training would really fly in the real world.
If China couldn’t in this universe do what our China would do, then I think there would have to be other countries that could do it. Competition for American markets has always been a thing with technological products.
Verbal consent for such life changing actions seem to me to be very actionable legally. Done over the phone, you don’t know if the smallara victim is being coerced, for example. I can’t imagine a world where you wouldn’t have to consent to this in person, making sure you understand every aspect of how your rights would change.