While the three adults discussed Mr. Hale’s proposition down stairs in the conference room, Roni, Joey, and Santiago had made their way upstairs to Joey’s room. It had been a few months since Roni was last there, but the sheer size in comparison to her own bedroom still made her eyes widen in surprise. It was easily the size of the master bedroom her parents shared, maybe even larger, with various posters of Joey’s favorite athletes on the walls. Roni couldn’t help but suppress a small giggle, knowing that despite his claims, baseball had been more than just a means to socialize. Roni knew that Joey genuinely enjoyed it, even knowing he had gone as far as trying to meet a few major league players a couple of years ago, just to be thwarted by his parents before he could have their private chauffeur drive him to San Francisco.
As Roni explored the room, trying to see what all had changed since she had last been there, Joey and Santiago went over to Joey’s work desk where his 3D printer and expensive computer rested. Joey quickly sat down and opened his email client, typing like a madman. Santiago couldn’t see who he was trying to contact, but it was evident in his typing and the files he was zipping that Joey was trying to reach out to someone regarding a topic Joey thought was of critical importance.
“Senior Joey…what are you doing” whispered Santiago as he curiously watched Joey type away on his computer.
“Santiago…you don’t need to whisper. I’m just…sending an email is all…possibly the last one I have a chance to send regarding some of my ideas…” casually replied Joey with a resolute tone, finishing up a few details and attaching a few documents before hitting send, a smile on his face. Now that he was back in his home for the last time, Joey figured he’d get some last minute things taken care of before his shrinking. Especially the project he had been working on the last few months prior to his diagnosis.
Joey decided long ago that he’d need to do something big in order to get noticed by the product designers for Generitech, so he came up with and wrote a proposal for Generitech to have their own 3D printer design marketplace with proprietary printers as well as suggesting selling little safe resin in their stores. The 3D printer market place could be set up to only allow printing if a Generitech coded printer was hooked up to a computer, something Joey knew for certain that an industry titan like Generitech could whip up without much thought, and it would guarantee that all Generitech approved designs would be offered through them, allowing the company to get all revenue and create a user friendly process for Guardians to create their littles whatever they’d need without breaking the bank.
Joey had done some test prints on his own using animal safe resin, and had given Santiago the instructions on how to use his printer a few days ago. Of course, he had warned Santiago that he wasn’t too certain if the skin of a little would be more prone to irritation or if their sense of smell would pick up any residual fumes so Joey recommended letting it air out for a bit after completion. For Santiago’s nephew’s birthday, though, Joey had given him the design for a bed frame and for a to scale costume of Mjolnir armor from Halo that could snap together with relative ease around the body of a little so long as they were wearing some kind of fabric beneath it to keep the objects from touching their skin. Joey had tested this a few different ways on some action figures before deciding that it was safe for a little to put on themselves with guardian supervision.
“Wait-Joey, is that the Generitech Project you have been working on?!” asked Roni, her curiosity peaked and eyes narrowing with focus as she leaned over his shoulder, “I didn’t think you were going to be done with it by now”
“Yeah Roni. It’s not completely finished technically, but it’s mostly done and I think is good enough, considering current events. I didn’t want to miss my shot so…well…I’m taking it. I’ve also added you to it the email, and shared some of my 3D print designs with you, too.” stated Joey with a excited sparkle in his eyes as he made sure to share his cloud files with Roni’s email.
“You did? Why? I don’t have a printer or anything like that” questioned Roni as her face twisted in confusion.
“Well…I’m giving you my printer, and my laptop too.” replied Joey matter-of-factly to Roni’s surprise. “Look, I’ve always kept you in the loop with this stuff, and you’ve always supported my ideas. I just think you’re the one person in the world I trust to continue working on my idea if it gets any traction” he continued, looking her in the eye with assurance, knowing Roni could do this just as well, if not better, than he could if given the opportunity. “Plus, it’s a pretty high-end printer and laptop, so you can use it at college for projects and what not if you need to; you know…give it that 110% effort thing they talk about in sports” he added with a sideways grin.
Roni nodded along as she understood Joey’s logic. After all, he basically shared all of his plans with her and they both had worked on a few projects together, albeit it was mostly Joey driving things, wanting to make the lives of littles and guardians easier and affordable.
“Hey, what’s that folder there?” asked Roni, pointing to the monitor to a folder called ‘Everyday Little’.
“Oh shit…” said Joey as he realized he had started that a couple of weeks ago and forgot to tell Roni. “Sorry Roni, between school and everything prior to uh…current events…I had forgot to tell you I had another idea for a Generitech blog subscription where they offer designs for using everyday objects to make knock offs of things generitech and Preema Tech offer” Joey then spins around in his chair, knocking both Roni and Santiago off balance, and gets up to walk over to his workbench.
“See, one of the things that bothered me is how expensive the bathroom setups are, so I came up with this” He continues as he gestures to a small plastic-looking box with what appeared to be random junk attached to it.
“I couldn’t figure out how to get a toilet to work outside of connecting another reservoir, but I used a mix of smooth and textured plexiglass, some drip line, waterproof adhesive, and a waterpik to basically make a shower setup for a little. All the guardian would need to do is twist a knob then boom running water” Joey said proudly as he turned on the device and water began gently spurting out of the pick into the shower part of the bathroom. “I even made a drain that empties into another reservoir the same size as the other one so the excess water and soap has somewhere to go. All anyone would really need to do after that is use enough line to hide the reservoir or something…you know,keep it looking neat and tidy”
Roni’s eyes widened in pleasant surprise, a flury of her own ideas flowing through her head as she considered the possibilities. “Joey, this is incredible!” she leaned in really close, examining the effective, though plain looking, bathroom he made. “You could take the springs out of pens and some modeling clay and use those like on and off buttons somehow to turn the water off! Or even use them as a means to open a few small latches in some kind of drilled out bowl so it works like a real toilet!”
Santiago stood there and watched as the two teens exchanged ideas on how to improve the lives of littles with admiration. Very few people bothered to go out of their own way to educate themselves on littles, let alone come up with ideas on how to make their lives better. Granted, thought Santiago, it’s to help Generitech turn a profit, but the sentiment is still the same. These two, though, they really seemed to care. It’s unfortunate that Joey was no longer considered a person. No longer able to pursue his dreams, live the rest of his life like a human, take over the family business like he was born to do, or do anything he really wanted to for that matter. The idea of this bothered Santiago, as he knew Joey had been destined for something important, and the grief he felt was what he expected Joey’s own family to feel, and the fact that they didn’t, sans Johnny, infuriated him to no end, and eventually his emotions got the better of him.
“Joey…” Santiago said solemnly, drawing the attention of the two teens with curiosity, “Senior…I…Gabriella and I well…we both would want you to know that…you mean a great deal to us and…well…we are sorry senior…truly, dearly sorry…” Santiago looks Roni in the eyes “Seniora…please take care of him…show him the love his Madre and Padres should have shown him his whole life” and with that, Santiago took his leave, responding to an urgent text from Mr Calhoun.
Joey and Roni watched him leave then looked at each other. Joey, for the most part, was shocked. Santiago cared for him, sure, but hearing it out loud, after being classified as an underbred, made it sink in that, for lack of a better term, the Joey he is will be dead soon, and what’s left barely counts to anyone. Anyone except Roni, and even his future with her wans’t guaranteed. He looked at her, searching her eyes for support, and his expression softened as he got exactly what he needed, as Roni looked at him with a look that warmed his soul and reminded him that there are people that, no matter what he is, still cared about him. The two of them hugged, Joey’s posture relaxing in the embrace of his best friend, cherishing this moment as one of the fleeting few he would have with her as peers.
“Hey..lets start getting your stuff together, jojo” Roni said with a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood using her sisters nickname, “After all, there’s a decent amount of junk in here that might look good in my bedroom, brother”
The two exchanged a reassuring smile as they gathered as much of Joey’s stuff together as possible, unaware of Santiago’s assent up the stairs to Joey’s room to summon them downstairs for Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun’s important announcement.
1) It was good to see what the teens were up to.
2) Joey being embarrassed to tell a girl he liked the sport he played is cute.
3) “Now that he was back in his home for the last time, Joey figured he’d get some last minute things taken care of before his shrinking” Gotta love how proactive and motivated this kid is.
4) Love that he’s going for Genritech to notice him.
5) “for Generitech to have their own 3D printer design marketplace” That’s a good idea, what inspired it?
6) He didn’t know if littles were prone to skin irritation but can design a detailed power armour for one?
7) “Well…I’m giving you my printer, and my laptop too.” More like “I’m keeping my laptop and printer by putting them in your name”
8.1) “where they offer designs for using everyday objects to make knock offs of things generitech and Preema Tech offer” another good idea.
8.2) Roni contributing was awsome.
9) “It’s unfortunate that Joey was no longer considered a person.” yes he is, it’s not until he’s infected that that legally changes.
10) Santago saying his goodbye was fucking awesome!
1) it was kinda a fun way to break up the emotional and frustrating moments that were going on downstairs
2) he actually had picked it cause it was the sport where the least amount of people recognized his name or if they did recognize it, they didn’t care as much. Sacramentos kind of a baseball town so that takes a little more precedent than a persons family name imo. Granted I’m a big baseball fan so that’s how I view it lol
3) gotta shoot your shot. Especially with all the effort you put into a passion project meant to help you get involved with a place you enjoy
5) I got it from the 3d printer marketplaces that currently exist and figured it would be something that the population would be interested in. It would in theory be cheaper and generitech could make a profit off proprietary 3d printers, designs, and resin they design specifically for consumers and their littles
6) it’s supposed to snap over their clothes so it won’t directly touch their skin. I did have a idea that they make a small shirt and pants out of spandex too but didn’t include it. He did use a resin that’s rated to be safe for animals, but I don’t know a ton about printing itself and dint want to go too in depth on that part in case people had more technical questions I couldn’t answer lol
7) lol true. He isn’t thinking about the fact that she’s gonna have access to his passwords and stuff if he’s her little, though whether or not she snoop around or asks his permission to use his profile on the laptop is another issue all together
8) thank you! And Ronis pretty good with that sort of thing too. They’re a dynamic duo when it comes to making functioning stuff like this
9) I should have done that differently. It would make sense for Santiago to know that given his nephew being a little
10) he cared a lot about Joey and Johnny. The funny thing is historically the Calhoun children of the family and their staff members have a pretty good relationship, it’s just when they need to hire new employees that the relationship goes away. Like Leonard had a really close bond with his father’s staff manager but by the time Leonard took over For his father, that person was too old and retired. It’s a big reason why the Calhouns try to do all of the work their employees do in the company. It helps them understand their jobs and struggles and make sure they know how to make things easier so they get quality employees and can help motivate them
Very excited for new chapters to be coming out. It’s been fun seeing you get back to this point.
I’m excited to post the few I have. Sadly my slowness as a writer will be on full display at that point lmao