Charity lay still beneath the curve of her shoe, eyes open now, adjusting to the dim light filtering through the soft shadowed space. For the first time since she’d shrunk, she wasn’t moving. She just… looked.
And what she saw wasn’t normal.
Everything was sharper.
Too sharp.
The stitching inside the fabric shoe liner wasn’t just a blur of threads anymore, it was a map, a weaving of fibers so fine and detailed she could follow every twist in the pattern. Dust particles sat along the edge of the insole like tiny boulders. A single strand of her hair, caught against the sole, looked thick and ropelike, casting a faint shadow in the faint morning light. She could even see the tiny shimmer of oil where her fingers had once touched the inside wall of the shoe.
Charity blinked.
She had always had good eyesight. It was something she took for granted. She never needed glasses, never struggled to read the board from the back of class. But this… this wasn’t just “good.” This was otherworldly. Her vision had changed, upgraded, and it made her uneasy.
The transformation hadn’t only made her smaller. It had changed the way she saw the world.
Her eyes were different now.
Somehow, when her body shrank, her eyes had become more than they were before. The insides had been restructured, adapted to help her survive in a world where every step had to be measured, where danger could come from a dust bunny or a falling crumb.
Her retina, the part at the back of the eye that collects light, was packed with far more cells than before. Like upgrading a camera from a fuzzy photo to something so clear you could see the veins in a leaf. Even though her eyes were smaller, they had more of what mattered: the rods and cones that turned light into vision.
In the very center of her sight, what was called the fovea, everything was sharp and vivid. The colors were richer. Edges were more defined. There was no blur, no fuzziness. Just clarity.
Even the lens inside her eye, the part that helps focus, had changed. It bent more easily now, flexing in ways it never could before. That meant she could look at something a few inches away, then shift to something else further away, and still see both clearly. She didn’t have to squint or wait. Her eyes adapted, and fast.
The outer part of her eye, the curved, clear dome called the cornea, was better, too. It focused light more accurately, made sure it hit just the right spot on the back of her eye. It had to. When your whole eye is the size of a lentil, there’s no room for error.
And the pupil, that dark center that lets light in, could change size quicker than before. In the bright light of day, it tightened to a narrow slit. But in shadows, it grew wide and open, drinking in every bit of light like it was starving. Her world never truly went dark. It just dimmed.
Behind all of that was something strange. Something not human at all. A layer behind the retina that glinted faintly, almost like a cat’s eye in the dark. It was called the tapetum lucidum, and it acted like a mirror, bouncing light back through her eyes to give her a second chance to see what others might miss.
She could see better in low light now. Better than she should be able to. Not perfectly, but enough to notice the things that crept in silence. The shifts in light. The smallest movements.
And her brain? It had adjusted, too.
All of that new information, the extra detail, the faster movement, the sharper colors, would’ve been overwhelming to her old mind. But now her visual cortex worked overtime, sorting it, organizing it, making sense of it all in real-time.
Even the nerves that carried images from her eyes to her brain moved faster now. There wasn’t time for lag. Not when danger could come from above, behind, anywhere.
Her eye muscles had grown stronger, more precise. She could flick her gaze across the room and track every motion with speed and accuracy she didn’t remember having before. It was like her eyes were always on alert, always ready to scan, to react, to warn her.
And maybe that was the cruelest part of it all.
The virus hadn’t just shrunk her.
It had equipped her.
Prepared her for a life she never asked for, one where every edge mattered, where every twitch of movement could mean survival or death. It had made her better, faster, sharper… smaller.
She had never feared the dark before. But now her body prepared her for it.
She had never feared the open air. But now her eyes scanned it constantly for threats.
As she lay there beneath her old shoe, heart slowing, the silence settling around her, Charity realized something strange.
Her eyes were no longer built for comfort.
They were built for vigilance.
And that meant rest wouldn’t come easily anymore.
Not when every detail, every flicker of light, was just a little too clear.
I love these setup episodes to prepare us along with Charity, for when she meets a tallie.
This story is a bit more slower and methodical then the original smallara. Where things are setup and explained more.
Plus it kind of works as secondary onboarding point where if you haven’t read everything prior you could read this and while you may not fully get all the backstory and references things are explained well enough that a new person could be fine.
the more i learn the more I think human to little is a evolution for the better and I think Chole’s company thinks so also. If you have a good guardian, your life would be better if you were a normal 9 to 5 person like Jordan was. I have said this before but i choles company makes a human to little evolutionary machine. I bet many would do it so they don’t have to do the same grind anymore and pick their guardian. Kind of a different version of downsizing the movie.
thats kind of one of the throughlines of the story is that being a little does have advantages biologically its a superior so its a evolution. However, the size difference changes a lot as well so its kind of a thought experiment in some ways.
I think its all about finding the right Guardian and being a little is better then being a human. becoming a a little would be freeing for people with just a small piece of spinal cord missing or a back muscle or back bone that needs to be fixed that might be just a little much for the advances they have but enough for a full transformation. Our maybe a couple just wants to shake thinks up or live cheaper with one being a little, even with the expenses.
So Littles at night almost look like cats, with the highly reflective eyes. They really are more animal like then human like, I guess. Especially when the bonding to their owners.. I mean… “Guardians”. Quick question that’s unclear, but if they are considered pets then do some owners decide to get their littles spayed or neutered?
Also, I still don’t think all the training equipment would force a Little to be compliant if they truly didn’t want it. Like isn’t a shock collar or the ones that restrict breathing basically torture? A stubborn Little might resist, knowing that their owner can’t actually kill them so they might be willing to push their owner to the brink.
A guardian could get their little fixed if they wanted to. It would just be a medical procedure.I’m sure some might chose to do that. It would just depend on the situation or reasoning.
Not many people have multiple littles where it would be an issue though. Maybe over time it could be considered more often in multi little situations. In smallara prime Sara just has Jordan. So i can’t see her getting him fixed.
I haven’t really put to much thought into that situation to be honest.
I don’t think they are torture. Imean i can buy a shock collar for dogs on amazon right now. Choke collars have been used in dog training for a long time. Not every trainer or person chooses to use them. But they aren’t exactly difficult to get nor are people looked down upon for using them.
So i don’t think it would be considered torture. Plus a number of things could be done to someone that wouldn’t fatally harm them. Even simplistic things like Isolation or food restrictions, etc.
Most people wouldn’t take it that far as for the most part its an accepted part of their life in this world at this point. Like this story is taking place in late 2021. So its a year after smallara prime.
But still, a Little could choose to continue resisting if they wanted to. Or even self harm. They aren’t actually dogs and are capable of reasoning and communicating to their owners. Plus, I can’t imagine a Little would be compliant after getting fixed… especially if they want a relationship. Again, Littles are capable of love and relationships. You showed them forming a band, eating from a food truck, and even living in Little cities. So they are living close to normal lives, unless these are the exception. But the exceptions could be used to prove a point that they aren’t just animals, if people wanted to advocate for that. Imagine if someone told you who you could be with or love. I’m honestly surprised more Littles don’t act like Kelli toward their owner; even Jordan in the beginning was indignant and wanted his rights. He’s going along with it because Sara is nice but I could see this going in another direction if she wasn’t.
The threat of neutering would be a good way for a Guardian to get a Little to comply 🙂
In fiction, especially in fantastical or sci-fi, more speculative settings, you can rationalize that “anyone could do anything if they really wanted to.”
But if you overanalyze every plot or character decision to its most literal logical extreme, you’ll find contradictions in almost every story.
Take Star Wars for example: Padmé hides her children from Anakin because he’s become dangerously evil, yet she’s written to “die of a broken heart” over him, despite having her newborn twins to live for. It doesn’t hold up perfectly under scrutiny, but it serves the emotional and narrative purpose.
The same principle applies here: could a Little resist so strongly they’d rather die? In theory, sure, but canonically, Littles almost always want to survive, even when deeply sad or mistreated.
They don’t typically self harm because that would lead every story down the same dark, predictable road of death, tragic foster care, no growth or tension. Just clinical despair.
I think good fiction balances realism with narrative appeal. If every character chose death when things got grim, most stories would lose all there mystique, complexity, and hope.
As for your second question in this. Yes, Littles are fully capable of reasoning, feeling love, forming relationships, and fighting back, and that’s exactly why stories show a few exceptions like Kelli or Jordan.
They highlight that rebellion is possible. But it’s rare on purpose. Canonically, the system is designed to break that resistance gently, through caretaking, social conditioning, and the fact that survival instinct is stronger than rebellion for most Littles.
Getting fixed is traumatic, sure, but compliance after that is part of the same world logic. It’s how the society keeps functioning.
If every Little stayed fully defiant, the world would collapse into constant revolt or tragedy, which breaks the narrative tension.
So yes, they can resist. They just usually don’t, because that’s how this world stays consistent and keeps the story compelling.”
Atleast that’s my opinion and the process I generally use. Plus, I don’t really want to write about suicide to the point of self harm. I did with Sara Sara and that’s my touchstone to reality in this world. But, its not a theme or idea I want to explore. As I use this as my escape from reality and do it for fun.
I thought you said desexing Littles was strictly prohibited, that Governments wanted Littles reproducing as much as possible and have banned all contraceptives for Littles.
I always pictured it illegal in the united states but there are places you can go to get it done if you really want too.
As third countries don’t really have protections for littles. So the more I’ve thought about it. It seemed odd if the one law they had was littles couldn’t be spade or neutered.
So I’ve kind of just kept it as the 1st world countries have banned it. But if you want to go Mali for example and get your little fixed. Then I guess all the more power to you. But its not something most people are going to do.
But beyond that i just haven’t thought all that much on it as its not something I ever plan on depicting or having happen.
I feel like taking a Littje to another country, desexing then and bringing then back should be the kind of thing that raises red flags, maybe loses guardian licenses.
Medical is expensive in ameica. So its not uncommon here to leave the country for some medical procedures to places where they are cheaper.
As often insurance won’t cover anything that the insurance company doesn’t view as necessary. Which is often different then what the hospital views as necessary.
Asuka,
I’m up to Episode 170 right now and I just noticed that when you introduce Emily you referred to her as Mrs. Brooks. It was my understanding that she was never married, should be Ms. or Miss Brooks, correct?
How would you like that in the Wiki?
If I’m being annoying let me know…
Episode 174 seems to have ended prematurely. It looks like the last line (or more) is cut off.
It ends like this:
As relieved as Jordan felt at first. It bothered him that this was something he had to do. He longed for days when he could simply go to the bathroom independently. If he were to go by himself now, he would most
Thats all there is now. There was probably more in the original version before deviant art nuked everything but that’s how it is on every copy I have currently have
She would be Ms. Brooks as she is not married.
1) I love reading science. I’m not knowledgeable about eyes, so I can’t comment on that. But I do wanna know, can Littles see colours Biggles can’t?
2) The brain getting its own enhancement to match the new senses makes sense, almost a no-brainer. (I deeply apologise)
3) “And maybe that was the cruellest part of it all. The virus hadn’t just shrunk her. It had equipped her” That’s more like the smallest of Mercy’s than an additional cruelty.
4) “Her eyes were no longer built for comfort. They were built for vigilance.” Human eyes weren’t built for comfort; they too were for vigilance.
1) I had to research. I Don’t inherently know much either until I looked into it and adapted bits and pieces to work for the story.
2)It was necessary for processing. (also insert groan here)
3) Well if it didn’t equip her she wouldn’t survive. Death isn’t always mercy depending on the person.
4) fair enough