“I know it’s different for me,” Carter began, skating alongside her with a gentle pace. “My Little isn’t family, so I get that it’s not the same. But, it wasn’t smooth sailing at first. We had to work through a lot before things clicked. Honestly, it was easier because we didn’t have history weighing on us. We were building a new relationship from scratch. You and Kelli, though… I can see how different it is. It feels like she still hasn’t fully accepted she’s a Little.”
Kayla’s frown deepened. “What do you mean? She knows she’s a Little, she’s just… doing it in her own Kelli way,” she said, a hint of defensiveness in her tone.
Carter shot her a knowing look. “You know that’s not really it. You’re afraid to admit it because then you’d have to face the truth. You two are sisters, and your bond is strong. Anyone can see that. But the hard part is, she doesn’t see you as her guardian because she doesn’t see herself as a Little.”
Kayla was quiet for a moment, the words sinking in. She stared ahead, the wind brushing her hair back as they skated. “I don’t know,” she muttered, though the hesitation in her voice betrayed her. “I mean, I know you’re right, but how do I pull rank on her? She’s Kelli, she’s always been the larger-than-life one.”
Carter nodded thoughtfully. “I get it. My big sister? She pushes me around all the time. But with you and Kelli, it’s different. She has to recognize you as her guardian now, even though that wasn’t how it used to be. She’s a Little, Kayla, and that comes with real risks if she doesn’t accept it. She can’t go around acting like she’s in charge. You need to have the authority to rein her in, or it could get dangerous for both of you. She doesn’t know how to protect herself at this size.”
Kayla sighed heavily, her hands gripping the edges of her board as if holding on would give her more control. “So what am I supposed to do? Tell her she’s my pet now? I can’t do that to her. But you’re right, she has to come to terms with being a Little. Maybe if she does, she’ll finally listen to me. It’s exhausting, Carter. You have no idea. She treats me like a chauffeur, ‘make with the hand, Kayla,’ like I’m a car. She fights me on everything. She doesn’t want to come to school with me, won’t consider a habitat, and she won’t even touch the pellets. I don’t need her to eat them exclusively, but she needs some nutrients.”
Carter chuckled softly, but his eyes were warm with understanding. “It’s tough, no doubt. And yeah, it’s harder when it’s family. But you’ll get there. You just need to sit down with her and have a real talk. A habitat makes sense, you both need space. And the pellets? No one who wasn’t smallborn likes them at first, but you know what’s best. You’ve got the training.”
Kayla nodded slowly, the weight of everything pressing down on her. “I know. And I probably owe her an apology. I said some stuff that wasn’t fair,” she admitted. Then, with a sudden shift, she pointed ahead. “Oh, let’s eat at Tony’s. I love their pasta.”
Carter grinned, letting the change of subject settle them. “Maybe let her stay at Talisa’s overnight?”
Kayla mused. “We could both use the space. But I don’t know if Talisa’s up for that.”
I think a night apart might be good for both of them.
It certianly couldn’t hurt.
Sometimes we need space from family it hurts to say but sometimes it’s what we all need granted only for shorts amount of time. Interesting that Kelli hasn’t accepted she is a little bit when the talk happens I hope it’s handle better than Sara, Mads, and almost every other guardian that gotten a focus in a short or long story because my god the way it been put out by them have been borderline awful, ridiculous, sometimes cruel and unnecessary ways ( excluding Chrissy and the girl from the twin brothers story who I can’t remember the name of lol sorry)
Overall it will be interesting to see how Kelli will be after spending the night with Talisa hopefully encouraging for Kelli who more than likely will be down in the dumps kind of mood again after hearing the untold truth about how Kayla felt before she shrunk or at least will be feeling bad about it in some way
Great stuff man
Space can be good. It allows for time to reflect and hear others thoughts.
Idk if Kayla needs to be an authoritarian or anything but she does need to talk to Kelli and work with her on a new normal. Kayla I still think needs to learn what is really going on with Kelli though. It’d be cool if she talked with carter’s sister and his sister was like “yeah she’s lost everything and you need to learn that so you can help her. It’s all a front right now” cause, it is. I don’t think it’s just Kelli not accepting being a little, it’s her trying to maintain the one thing from her life she has, and Kayla doesn’t really understand she’s taking that away from her. The best thing she could do is offer to do one Kelli thing a week. That’s what I’d do anyway.
Also I like that Carter conveniently left school out of the list.
There is a line Kayla is going to have to walk. I mean she doesn’t need to be an authoritarian but she does need the ability to tell Kelli no or override some decisions if they truly are in the best interest of Kelli.
As there are things Kelli would need to be protected from.
I believe she can walk it. I’m betting it’ll be emotional but she and Kelli’s talk gives me hope they’ll see closer to eye to eye eventually. Not perfectly but enough to where there’s balance
1) “My Little isn’t family, so I get that it’s not the same. But, it wasn’t smooth sailing at first. We had to work through a lot before things clicked. Honestly, it was easier because we didn’t have history weighing on us” There’s an interesting dichotomy where Littles are typically better off with Guardians they knew prior, but Guardians have an easier time with Littles they Didn’t.
Obviously, this isn’t universal, Sara and Bryce are examples of the opposites, but mostly.
2) “What do you mean? She knows she’s a Little” Knowing and accepting aren’t the same.
3) “she doesn’t see you as her guardian because she doesn’t see herself as a Little.” she’s still figuring things out, the facility evidently didn’t help her with that.
4) “I mean, I know you’re right, but how do I pull rank on her? She’s Kelli, she’s always been the larger-than-life one.” Kayla does lack many of the ‘traditional’ traits other guardians have, it’s part of why I like her, and if Kayla does this wrong, it could permanently ruin her relationship with Kelli, so it’s understandable why she’s uncertain.
5.1) “I get it. My big sister? She pushes me around all the time.” big sisters be like that.
5.2) “But with you and Kelli, it’s different. She has to recognize you as her guardian now, even though that wasn’t how it used to be. She’s a Little, Kayla, and that comes with real risks if she doesn’t accept it” Carter’s right here, there are dangers that Kelli will face that Kayla will need to protect her from and that will be more difficult if Kelli doesn’t respect Kayla’s authority.
5.3) “She can’t go around acting like she’s in charge. You need to have the authority to rein her in, or it could get dangerous for both of you. She doesn’t know how to protect herself at this size.” is Carter a ranked guardian cause he’s giving good advice? If so what’s his rank?
6) “So what am I supposed to do? Tell her she’s my pet now? I can’t do that to her. But you’re right, she has to come to terms with being a Little. Maybe if she does, she’ll finally listen to me” Kayla does need the ability to finalise discussions with what she says, It’s good that she’s more open to listening to her Little than most guardians but putting her foot down is a necessary evil, just so long as she doesn’t take it too far.
7) “She treats me like a chauffeur, ‘make with the hand, Kayla,’ like I’m a car. She fights me on everything. She doesn’t want to come to school with me, won’t consider a habitat, and she won’t even touch the pellets. I don’t need her to eat them exclusively, but she needs some nutrients.” she’s in a shitty situation, she knows she’s only got very limited (mostly ) options and she’s gonna try and maintain any power she can hang on to. Taking it away is gonna be hard on both of them.
8.1) “You just need to sit down with her and have a real talk.” Talking things out is good, I can imagine previous attempts at talking things out have only lasted until they got frustrated with each other and ended unresolved
8.2) “A habitat makes sense, you both need space.” It could also be a place Kelly uses to feel normal, with everything in it scaled to her size and where she’d have sovereignty.
8.3) “And the pellets? No one who wasn’t stillborn likes them at first,” Pellets are a humiliating thing to feed Littles, I reckon they were designed for ease of feeding, but they look identical to animal food, which most littles would hate the optics of. I get that they are necessary for a littles health, but the seem designed to be resisted.
8.4) “but you know what’s best. You’ve got the training.” no Carter, being trained doesn’t automatically make someone know what’s best, so many guardians fuck up regularly, but the do give guardians inflated senses of knowing what’s best.
9) “I probably owe her an apology. I said some stuff that wasn’t fair,” Definitely, though I do see where her frustrations come from.
10) “Maybe let her stay at Talisa’s overnight?” – “We could both use the space. But I don’t know if Talisa’s up for that.” Still can’t wait to see how Greg and Judy react to this.
11) I’ve noticed you’re using gender-neutral words to refer to Carter’s little, are they male or female? are we going to see them in a future chapter?
9) Kayla’s like the only guardian off the top of my head that would apologize without being forced to or expecting something in return. She more mature in that way
Hailey did, she accidentally overworked the brothers by underestimating a task she assigned them.
Chrissy would, but she’d need to mess up enough to owe Scotty one first.
Oh yeah. I’m Not operating on full brain power today
8.5) not mentioned in the chapter, but collaring Kelli’s gonna be a fight and a half.
1) “My Little isn’t family, so I get that it’s not the same. But, it wasn’t smooth sailing at first. We had to work through a lot before things clicked. Honestly, it was easier because we didn’t have history weighing on us” There’s an interesting dichotomy where Littles are typically better off with Guardians they knew prior, but Guardians have an easier time with Littles they Didn’t.
Obviously, this isn’t universal, Sara and Bryce are examples of the opposites, but mostly.
2) “What do you mean? She knows she’s a Little” Knowing and accepting aren’t the same.
3) “she doesn’t see you as her guardian because she doesn’t see herself as a Little.” she’s still figuring things out, the facility evidently didn’t help her with that.
4) “I mean, I know you’re right, but how do I pull rank on her? She’s Kelli, she’s always been the larger-than-life one.” Kayla does lack many of the ‘traditional’ traits other guardians have, it’s part of why I like her, and if Kayla does this wrong, it could permanently ruin her relationship with Kelli, so it’s understandable why she’s uncertain.
5.1) “I get it. My big sister? She pushes me around all the time.” big sisters be like that.
5.2) “But with you and Kelli, it’s different. She has to recognize you as her guardian now, even though that wasn’t how it used to be. She’s a Little, Kayla, and that comes with real risks if she doesn’t accept it” Carter’s right here, there are dangers that Kelli will face that Kayla will need to protect her from and that will be more difficult if Kelli doesn’t respect Kayla’s authority.
5.3) “She can’t go around acting like she’s in charge. You need to have the authority to rein her in, or it could get dangerous for both of you. She doesn’t know how to protect herself at this size.” is Carter a ranked guardian cause he’s giving good advice? If so what’s his rank?
6) “So what am I supposed to do? Tell her she’s my pet now? I can’t do that to her. But you’re right, she has to come to terms with being a Little. Maybe if she does, she’ll finally listen to me” Kayla does need the ability to finalise discussions with what she says, It’s good that she’s more open to listening to her Little than most guardians but putting her foot down is a necessary evil, just so long as she doesn’t take it too far.
7) “She treats me like a chauffeur, ‘make with the hand, Kayla,’ like I’m a car. She fights me on everything. She doesn’t want to come to school with me, won’t consider a habitat, and she won’t even touch the pellets. I don’t need her to eat them exclusively, but she needs some nutrients.” she’s in a shitty situation, she knows she’s only got very limited (mostly ) options and she’s gonna try and maintain any power she can hang on to. Taking it away is gonna be hard on both of them.
8.1) “You just need to sit down with her and have a real talk.” Talking things out is good, I can imagine previous attempts at talking things out have only lasted until they got frustrated with each other and ended unresolved
8.2) “A habitat makes sense, you both need space.” It could also be a place Kelly uses to feel normal, with everything in it scaled to her size and where she’d have sovereignty.
8.3) “And the pellets? No one who wasn’t stillborn likes them at first,” Pellets are a humiliating thing to feed Littles, I reckon they were designed for ease of feeding, but they look identical to animal food, which most littles would hate the optics of. I get that they are necessary for a littles health, but the seem designed to be resisted.
8.4) “but you know what’s best. You’ve got the training.” no Carter, being trained doesn’t automatically make someone know what’s best, so many guardians fuck up regularly, but the do give guardians inflated senses of knowing what’s best.
9) “I probably owe her an apology. I said some stuff that wasn’t fair,” Definitely, though I do see where her frustrations come from.
10) “Maybe let her stay at Talisa’s overnight?” – “We could both use the space. But I don’t know if Talisa’s up for that.” Still can’t wait to see how Greg and Judy react to this.
11) I’ve noticed you’re using gender-neutral words to refer to Carter’s little, are they male or female? are we going to see them in a future chapter?
1) Well the idea is that its often easier to form a new relationship then re-establish an old relationship or current relationship. As the new relationship you have no prior history or anything you have to remap. Where if its an existing relationship you are actually remapping the boundaries and ideas behind how the original relationship was formed so you have to relearn things is quite difficult depending on how long the pre-existing relationship has gone on.
2) They are Kelli knows shes a little but fully accepting your a little within the confines of your old life is very different then accepting your alittle in a basically a pod design for people your size. Nothing feels out of place because you’re not ever in situaitons where the little’s smallness is an issue.
3) Well Kelli and kayla didn’t interact there. It would be different for Kelli interacting with people seh doesnt know even the staff who are full sized the interactions wouldn’t be anything like the ones between her and Kayla. They woudl be professional and follow social norms.
4) Another factor is Kayla’s social awkwardness makes things more complicated as she isn’t often in person to person social situations where these kind of uncomfortable things would arise. Even online things would be different. As an online interaction is in alot of ways less personable and lacks body language and so many key social aspects.
5) It’s part of the older sibling code I think.
5.2) Ultiamtely things will have to change. Carter is correct.
5.3) I don’t currently have any plans to make him ranked. Mostly because everyone can’t be ranked or being ranked won’t mean anything. But also theory and practical applicaiton are different. Just becuase he has theory down doesn’t mean he can little walk well or carry out other more physical aspects of guardian training.
6) Kayla probably has only put her foot down a handful of times in her entire life. So it won’t be very comfortable for her to do anything like that.
7) That is the exact situaiton as Kelli sees it. She knows she doesn’t have much power to hold onto. So any bit of control of her life hse is going to try to hold onto for dear life. It will be a difficult situation.
8) Basically, plus Kelli is the more smooth talker of then Kayla. So sits more difficult for Kayla to win in a verbal spar.
8.2) Although its the idea of being sealed into basically glass cage being reliant on Kayla to be able to come and go which she doens’t care for. Which is understandable. I don’t think i’d enjoy that either.
8.3) Well they look like cereal is the intent it cant be helped that cereal looks like animal food. But its an easy way to make something that can be univerally eaten.
8.4) I dont know if thats true. Those are all choices they made that doesn’t mean the training was bad. Actively choosing to do something else is a choice but it doesn’t reflect on the training unless it bad training.
9) an Apology would go a long way but it would be easy to get frustrated like that.
10) They might not even know.It really depends how things shake out. A singular night woudl be pretty easy to disguise she wasn;t there if really needed too. But its doubtful she would need to even go that far.
11) Carter little does not appear in this story. So I saw no point in defining beyond that of him having a little.
1) That’s what I was getting at, from the guardians perspective a little they’ve never met before would be easier for them to treat like a pet as presidents haven’t been set, but for Littles, someone hey already knew and trusted would be more ideal as a Guardian.
2) Bryce was prepared for life outside the facility, but he was there longer and trained so He’s in a different situation.
3) Very true, but we know facilities don’t allow visitors to see the littles, even pre claimed ones.
4) That’s definitely a risk for her, she needs to be tactful in a way she’d likely struggle with.
5.3) Fair enough, but we’ve all so seen how far out high ranked Guardians can be so It already doesn’t mean much.
6) especially if Kelli reacts poorly.
7) And unfortunately, most of that control is over Kayla
8.1) That sounds right, she’s a lot more experienced in the art of social interactions.
8.2) I agree, a habitat would have aspects that suck, but at the same time, Kelli isn’t exactly given free roam of the house, she can’t be in her own bedroom for example, The habitat could function as her own room she’s in full control of, not giving control up.
8.3) I know, but “pellets” just sounds unappetising, especially when Littles can have food ade for them, all be it highly expensive food.
8.4) My point is being trained doesn’t automatically make a guardian right specifically because they might not be following the training, (also I don’t trust the training)
9) Especially with Kelli
10) I like to think they’re in the habit of checking on Kelli every morning and night, cause she’s still their daughter.
1) I think if she tells Kelli she is sorry for treating her not like her sister she loves, I think that will go a long way with the hard part to come. She will have to get pointers from her parents how to law down the law to keep Kelli safe and then tell Kelli some changes that have to happen to our relationship going forward to fulfill my pledge to be the guardian of the sister I love to keep you safe from a world that is to dangerous for you alone and to protect you from yourself because you are not aware of the dangers that trying to live like you didn’t get sick can get you killed. I think the first step is getting a proper little living space but one that isn’t a cage but like Kevin’s with a door that opens both ways so she doesn’t feel like she is in a cage. and set up a pellet dispenser and tell her she cant have real food until she has her daily pellet amounts to keep her healthily and also she wont unlock her door to the room so she can walk around by the bug light until she does other chores Kayla needs to keep her healthy. she also should get her a full access computer to keep her mind healthy.
The going to school with Kayla is something I am wondering how does that serve any purpose other then showing off Kayla has a little. Does Kayla need Kelli’s help for something? Is this a way for Kayla to get Kelli some social interaction?. I think this is another thing where Kayla says why she is doing it and Kelli is going to have to except it our get a punishment like having her door to her living area locked. I think the key is that even if she treats Kelli like a child she loves, she is still treating her like Kelli not a pet without love and respect.
Thank you for spoon feeding a fact based reply a old stem guy like me can understand lol.