Alejandra stepped off the bus, the morning sun too bright against the gray sprawl of the neighborhood strip. She squinted, adjusting the old backpack on her shoulder, feeling the slight, almost imperceptible shift of weight inside. She knew exactly what squirmed in there, her Patrona.
Her little now.
Her property, legally, officially, documented by Mexico’s ironbound database and mirrored in the U.S. system that used to shield girls like Charity with polite illusions of citizenship.
Alejandra’s lips twitched. It wasn’t quite a smile. Something darker, quieter.
She passed the corner taquería where she’d once scrubbed pans for a few extra dollars when cleaning gigs dried up. The old woman sweeping the front stoop barely glanced at her. To them, Alejandra was still just another brown girl in a hoodie with too-big sneakers and no papers. But if they could see inside her bag, if they knew, maybe they’d look twice.
She tightened her grip on the strap, feeling the cheap canvas dig into her palm. Inside, the bag was still. Not a peep from the creature curled up in the folds of her hoodie. Good. Let her listen to every footstep, every bargain, every grumble in Spanish she used to hide from the Stevens family because she didn’t want them to hear her accent slip.
She was done hiding.
She had a Patrona now, and for once, she was the dueña.
She crossed the dusty street toward the corner store, the one run by the grumpy Honduran who didn’t care where your papers came from as long as your money was green. She pushed the door open, a small bell jingling overhead.
Her boots squeaked on the old linoleum. She grabbed a basket, nodded politely to the cashier, and started her circuit. Rice, beans, canned milk. A fresh pack of tortillas if they hadn’t sold out yet.
The bag shifted on her back as she leaned to check the lower shelves. She imagined Charity inside, all that rich girl softness pressed between the hoodie and her cracked wallet. Probably trying not to breathe too loudly. Probably listening to every word Alejandra mumbled in Spanish as she counted the coins in her palm.
A tiny laugh escaped her lips, just a breathy puff, but real.
She had worked entire days cleaning that family’s kitchen. Polishing stainless steel so pristine it blinded her. Washing glassware so thin it looked breakable just from looking at it wrong. And upstairs, somewhere behind the double doors, Miss Charity Stevens was on her phone, barking orders at her friends, never a glance spared for the maid scrubbing out the toilet she couldn’t bother to flush herself.
Now? Now that same spoiled mouth stayed shut in a canvas cage.
Poetic, she thought, pulling a dusty jar of salsa from the shelf.
She paid in cash. She always did. No trail. No bank statements. The coins clinked into the cashier’s hand, sticky with tamarind candy. The man didn’t ask about the bulge in her bag. Nobody did. Who would suspect a tiny shivering American heiress was balled up next to her old textbooks and makeup pouch?
Back on the sidewalk, she adjusted the straps again. She felt the faintest shudder from inside, just enough to remind her:
She hears everything. Smells everything. Feels every jolt.
The virus turned the body into a perfect vessel for obedience and survival, smaller lungs but more efficient; skin that drank in trace oxygen; ears that caught every whispered threat. Perfect for control.
Alejandra crossed into the small laundromat at the next block. She needed clean work clothes for tomorrow. The owner gave her a tired nod.
She dumped her bundle into a machine, shoved in quarters, and settled onto a squeaky plastic bench by the wall.
She let the bag rest on her lap this time. She wanted Charity to feel the drum of her heartbeat, the heat of her belly underneath the thin cotton. Feel exactly who owned who.
She drummed her fingers on the canvas. Slow. Thoughtful.
Patrona.
What a joke. What a beautiful little irony.
If her old friends in Mexico could see her now, the girl who crossed the border with nothing but the ripped jeans on her back, they’d say ¡Qué huevos tienes, Ale! What nerve. What gall. But they wouldn’t mean it in a bad way.
She smirked down at the bag, picturing Charity’s pale, big eyes catching every vibration through her sharpened senses. Probably too scared to move. Too scared to talk.
She bent her head just close enough so her lips brushed the zipper.
“Portate bien, Patrona,” she murmured in a low, teasing whisper. “Be good. Or maybe I zip you up tighter next time, sí?”
The dryer buzzed. She rose, the bag swinging obediently against her hip.
Alejandra squared her shoulders, face calm but eyes gleaming.
Let the world see her today: the undocumented girl, the silent cleaner, the nobody.
But inside her bag?
She carried an entire fallen empire, tucked small and helpless against her beating heart.
getting more negative vibes from Al every day lol though i guess given her circumstances and who she has as her little, it’s building more moral ambiguity.
like right now it could just be her settling into the idea that she has Charity of all people now, but once that’s gone Alejandra is a decent person and is a bit more caring towards littles than we’re seeing.
Another point to consider is so far we have seen people like Sara who getting a little was an event and they structured there life around it.
We are seeing in Alejandra someone who littles aren’t special they aren’t unique, they are just a thing and a thing she has expierenced an outbreak and knows exactly what a little is.
So you are seeing someone who isn’t defined by owning a little .a little isn’t something life changing. She like a lot of people in Mexico they are just things you can buy.
I’m gonna go to the store. I have to get some chicken, some toothpaste and oh the kids want a little. I should pick one up finally as we have been saving.
So having charity is different to her then it would be someone in America as it’s
Not special. It’s just a thing, a responsibility.
that’s interesting. So is it kind of like where in the US is really sheltered from littles through government media control and other things to the point where it’s a status symbol and big deal for a person to have one, Mexico immediately incorporated it into every day life to until it got to that point?
Correct the us government controls and dictates the information released to the public. They fund the research Generitech does as a method of control. They want to dictate to the American people what littles are. Sara is a product of that.
Alejandra is a product of Mexico in that littles aren’t reveared status symbol they are just things.
That’s part of what she meant when she talked to charity about in Mexico you never would have gotten the chance to escape. You would have never gotten the illusion of being more than you are.
It’s not cruelty it’s just the reality of how littles are viewed In her culture. They are things. People may want a dog. They may want a cat they may want a little.
Littles can be taught things they can do things like. But they have a function and place in society.
Charity is her little. Who she owns. So she’s living her life and charity being her little exists as a. Extension of that.
The us government wants the money from littles registration, licensing, recurring fees, recurring guardian fees. So how do they do that? Littles are made expensive, status exclusive the rich the celebrities the influencers have them.
Why? It drives cost it drives want it creates desire.
So you create a hunger in your lower and middle classes as they see it as symbol. Something to attain. This means more people wanting littles.
So then over time the governent slightly lowers the cost making it more attainable. Thus increasing the long term revenue.
The us government solely sees littles as a way to make money. A way they can eventually tax people.
A way to extricate funds from there citizens in a way that people don’t realize as they are to dumb to understands. The information to refute them is owned by the us government. Who pays for all the little research. Controls the flow of littles.
Controls the media and the press. As that’s why it was subtle early on but the us restructuring the government was limportant as it allows for everything after without checks or balances the government normally has.
man that’s wild lol As far as messaging and framing what a little is to the public, I kind of think that Mexico’s method is a little bit better on the surface because it gets rid of the transitional period for the little post metamorphosis: you learn to accept it really really fast and move on. the US i think though is over all better though for those that catch smallara and shrink. learning to adapt to it and everything, to me, lets the little keep their humanity and have a bit more freewill.
that being said, I think everything else mexico’s done with rounding them up and stuff is horrible.
I think Mexico’s version is far worse because in Mexico they could just buy some littles find ways to kill them that are fun to you, not fun to the little.
In the US its about money of course but littles have value and a good company who is looking out for the safety and happiness of littles to make sure people dont kill them and take care of them with love and have enforcement and tracking to verify everything.
In that universe in my opinion any country with similar rules to Mexico is evil.
1) “Her property, legally, officially, documented by Mexico’s ironbound database and mirrored in the U.S. system that used to shield girls like Charity with polite illusions of citizenship” that system’s only ever given the illusion of protection to Littles.
2) “But if they could see inside her bag, if they knew, maybe they’d look twice” I’m not sure she wants them looking twice.
3) “the toilet she couldn’t bother to flush herself.” damn Charity, that’s foul.
4) “The virus turned the body into a perfect vessel for obedience and survival, smaller lungs but more efficient; skin that drank in trace oxygen; ears that caught every whispered threat. Perfect for control.” it’s definetly a very rough way tp look at littles, not the worst we’ve seen but still.
5) “She wanted Charity to feel the drum of her heartbeat, the heat of her belly underneath the thin cotton. Feel exactly who owned who.” she’s vrt into rubbing their new dynamic into Charity’s face,
6) “Be good. Or maybe I zip you up tighter next time, sí?” she wasn’t even misbehaving.
7) “Let the world see her today: the undocumented girl, the silent cleaner, the nobody. But inside her bag? She carried an entire fallen empire, tucked small and helpless against her beating heart.” I love how Al’s feeling on top of the world right now
3) yeah i thought that was pretty fucked lol
1) thats kind of what Alejandra was telling Charity though that the freedom she had was an illusion created by the U.S. in mexico she would have never been allowed to run free from the start. Alejandra recognizes hte differences in the system as shes lived with both.
2) Depends who i slooking. Authorities no. Random citzens maybe.
3) when you have that much money. YOu have people for that. I had forgotten about that line.
4) There have been worse outlooks. Charity is defiantely getting a look at hte system in a way she probably never wanted or intended. She should have trusted Kira. That was Charity’s downfall the inability or willingness to trust.
5) well procedurally she wants her registered little to fall into line. So those are things that would need to happen. You want the dog to know who’s the master. As they say.
6) It was meant as one of those lines parent say to kids to just remind them. Setting the tone so no one gets deluisions of granduer.
7) When you’ve had nothing for so long. And something finally good happesn to you. I feel like its a natural feeling and reaction. As for starting from nothing living on teh street to now having a home and a little. That is a big step up.
1) It feels kind of like telling a terminally ill person that their life is just an illusion, bringing up euthanasia as proof.
3) it’s not even cruel, it’s just weird and gross.
4) Kira sounds like she could have been Charity’s savour.
5) I see the logic.
6) That is not good parenting.
7) Especially considering who the Little she has is
After Whispers of a Former Life finish what will come after it ?
maybe madisons world redux or a new story (really really want a generitech employee story lol)
I’m hoping for more Birthday Shipment or Dayton: JGC myself lol.
hell yeah brother lol
I have a few options as to where it can go. We have Madison’s world which people have been asking for as well. We have Dayton story which people also like. Then we have a few side stories I could go with birthday shipment, good girlfriend, etc.
Also could do something new.
madisons world is cruel the way the two sisters turning the parents to pets it so ungrateful for them
The mom was evil and needs to be reraised, not through her rules but by the girls nicer updated family rules
I wouldn’t say it’s cruel as that’s how they were raised by their mother and the government supports that style. Cindy herself advocated for this treatment.
So while it’s difficult in my opinion as it’s a different culture, a different world, with different views and influences.
So while I don’t personally agree with them. I also believe they have a right to believe them even if I think it’s wrong or cruel.
But I believe with McKenzie at the helm now, I believe she will correct the family’s style to a kinder way
I do also. I think Mckenzie can reteach her mom
with her sisters help how to be not a bitch lol.