Inside the stale, plaid darkness, Charity curled tighter into herself, arms wrapped around her shins, forehead pressed to her knees. She could feel every motion Alejandra made, the swing of her hips, the tug of the backpack strap against her fabric walls, the slow, measured vibration of footsteps that rattled through her bones like distant thunder.
At her old size, she never noticed the world move beneath her. Floors were firm. Walls didn’t breathe. The air didn’t taste like old denim and sweat and the faint ghost of cheap rose perfume. But now, every creak of Alejandra’s shoes against the sidewalk translated into a shifting quake, rolling her softly left then right, pressing her nose deeper into the cloth folds she now called shelter.
Her senses betrayed her too, sharper now in ways she hadn’t yet fully accepted. Her hearing caught it all: the low hum of bus engines through the canvas, the muttered Spanish that slipped from Alejandra’s lips when she thought no one, nothing, could understand. Charity could hear the coins clink into unfamiliar palms, catch the crisp crinkle of receipts, the shuffle of another shopper’s bag brushing Alejandra’s hip as she turned in narrow aisles.
She hated how much of Alejandra she could smell. The backpack was infused with her. Faint shampoo residue. Dry skin. That powdery flower scent Alejandra always dabbed under her ears, the same perfume she once used to wrinkle her nose at when the girl passed too close to her marble hallway at home. Now it coated her lungs with each breath.
Worse still was how her mind refused to obey the logic she clung to back then: She’s a maid, she’s beneath me. It didn’t hold. Not when every step, every flex of Alejandra’s stomach against the bag’s fabric reminded her who controlled the air she breathed, the ground she stood on, the rights she no longer possessed.
A sudden bump sent her sprawling onto her side. She stifled a squeak. Even her voice betrayed her, pitched high and thin, with none of the commanding bite it once had. She bit her knuckle to muffle the tremor in her throat. Through the bag she heard the jingle of a register, the flat monotone of a cashier asking ¿efectivo o tarjeta? cash or card.
Of course, it would be cash. Alejandra never left a trail. Charity knew this only because, once upon a time, she’d bragged about her father’s accountant catching “illegals” on the payroll. Now she was literal cargo in the pocket of the same kind of girl her family exploited for cheap labor. And somehow that girl had used her tiny, efficient Mexican government login to reclassify a Stevens heiress as a household pet.
Charity’s new eyes had adjusted in the bag. There was no sunlight here, but her pupils flexed and widened, catching every nuance: the scuffed pen rolling by her hip when Alejandra moved too quickly; the faint lint particles drifting like ghostly stars. She hated it. She didn’t want to see this world so clearly. She didn’t want to taste the stale perfume, or feel the steady furnace heat radiating from Alejandra’s lower back through the fabric.
She’s just a girl, Charity thought desperately. She’s just a girl!
But the truth pulsed in her new, too-quick little heartbeat:
No, Alejandra was not just a girl anymore. She was a guardian.
She was the guardian, and Charity, for all her sharp senses, was nothing but a highly evolved pet.
The backpack shifted again. A new, muffled world: the warm hum of dryers, the plastic clatter of buttons inside a cheap washing machine, the slap of a flip-flop two seats down. Alejandra sat down, Charity felt it first in her bones: the sudden downward whoosh, the bag compressing tighter around her as the girl’s thigh pushed up beneath it. The stale air squeezed from her lungs; she sucked in another desperate gulp, stale and warm with Alejandra’s scent.
And then, the soft drum of fingertips. Not on her skin, but close enough. Alejandra’s finger tapping the canvas in lazy rhythm. A reminder.
I know you’re in there, Patrona.
And you know it too.
Charity closed her eyes. She could hear the faint drip of a ceiling leak hitting an empty mop bucket two rows over. She could feel the hum of Alejandra’s phone buzzing once on her lap. She could smell the faint detergent tang mingling with the ever-present ghost of rose perfume.
She could sense everything. But none of it changed the truth:
She was stuck inside the bag, sharper senses and all, with nowhere to run, no one to hear her whisper if she dared to scream.
Outside, Alejandra laughed at something the laundromat lady said.
Inside, Charity pressed her forehead back to her knees and tried not to cry.
Where is she going anyway is she going to stay in this bag all week ?
Alejandra is going about her life and day. Charity won’t be inside the bag all week. She will be in and out of the bag throughout this day in universe. So it’s a bit back and forth. As the bag is how Alejandra transports her similar to how Sara just lets Jordan sit on her shoulder. As Jordan doesn’t like being trapped and Sara respects that when possible. So she allows him to pikachu about.
Alejandra does not make that consideration for charity as she looks at littles from a Mexican in universe perspective.
This also highlights cultural differences.
Can i ask how takes Charity parents?
It’s listed in the story they go to distant relatives. They aren’t fleshed out beyond that as they aren’t part of the story
somewhat related, but wasn’t Jordan shown a tictok of a little in france being killed? mostly just trying to piece together in my head which mentioned countries are best with littles and which aren’t. I kinda see it as:
I am DYING for a world building lore dump on how different countries treat littles. Lethal would go nuts.
He would.
here is a data dump of the Mexican legal system for you as it currently exists. Just a note. this was put together using a combination of notes and charity story itself and the data pulled using AI. While i read over it and it all looks correct. Some things may be overlooked because of the use of AI to pull the information together:
🇲🇽 Mexican Littles Legal Framework
1. CER (Custodial Enrollment Record) Rules
2. Guardian Training and Ownership Age
3. Registration Accuracy & Oversight
4. Legal Classification
5. Biometric Requirements
6. Unified Global Registry
7. Forgery of CER
8. Protection and Labor Laws
9. Ownership Limits
10. Generitech Database Access
11. “Rabid” Littles Policy
12. Death Investigations
13. Customs and Border Policy
14. Registration Costs
15. Black Market Trade
16. Legal Status of American Littles in Mexico
1) That’s an efficient system
2) No age restriction is interesting, though it sounds like grade 7s at the youngest.
3) Requiring truthful location data could be Al’s downfall, if they investigate it properly they could find out Al and more importantly Charity weren’t in Mexico.
4) Succession is an aspect I’ve been wondering about.
5) well then Al had better hop to find an illegal friendly doctor.
6) Unifier universal registry sounds good.
7) so I guess Al is risking her life.
8) I wonder how much this is enforced.
9) subjective law enforcement? What could possibly go wrong?
10) Keeping Little and guardian information private sounds like a genuinely great idea.
11) a rabid little is a funny thing to think about.
12) Honestly if a Little managed to kil their guardian I’d probably be to impressed to charge them.
13) the boarder police is about what I expected.
14) Having the registration fee scaled to certain factors feels iffy and potentially unfair.
15) Black market Littles sound like an interesting addition to he world.
16) Sounds like Al’s actually safe lol.
1) Its a system built on efficiency was the goal. As the idea was that it was put into place during a time where they were being swamped with infections and unknowns. So they took drastic actions. Infected the population and created a system to avoid it ever happening again. As they want the entire Mexican population to be immune. So its very efficient and built around that. However, it removes the humanity from the situation.
2) That would be when you would get certified for free through the school system. A person could pay if they had money to take the test early. As in Mexico in theory if you had the money you could take the test at age 8 and then buy a little. Not saying its common just you could legally do it unlike in America.
3) She could have shipped charity home to her parents to register for that part and then have them ship charity back. But since Alejandra is a born Mexican citizen she just needs to provide a timestamped photo with her address which her permanent address is her parents address. So she isn’t lying its just not the residence she is staying at.
4) oh about how you in Mexico you can pass a little down to your children.
5) the doctor wouldn’t need to be illegal. Once she ahs the approval of charity being hers. She has a legal right as far as the government is concerned. SHe could just take charity to any medical facility and have it done. The only thing that might give her pause is finding a facility that wouldn’t ask questions about her status. Which most facilities probably wouldn’t as medical sites seem to be more about care then citizenship status. As long as you can pay.
6) Its good and bad depending on who you are. Its bad for charity good for Alejandra.
7) Alejandra isn’t forging a document, though. It’s a legitimate document she filed. She isn’t being 100% truthful about where charity was when she found her. Forging of documents is more intended for if you created a fake CER document and tried to use it as if its real. Alejandra filed a legal document, and she could argue she filed it with information she thought was correct at the time. As her parents’ home is her permanent address.
8) I would say the majority of people do this just because its not hard to do. most people aren’t working their littles for 8 straight or 16 straight hours. Its a law, and a legal requirement but its probably a law where someone would need to report you for not doing it. Or be caught in some kind of randomized wellness check or something not following this.
9) gotta keep this real feeling. Subjective enforcement is far to common irl.
10) it protects the little and guardian.
11) it is, but I didn’t know how else to classify it based on how they view littles.
12) Honestly same.
13) yup, its exactly as you would imagine.
14) The way i picture it is its based on your tax filing for your yearly income.
15) Its not something that is utilized in this story but it does exist.
16) Alejandra is safe she didn’t do anything all that wrong. The only thing she did was claim a little she found in the US under Mexican law. So while us could from a jurisdiction standpoint say something but also its a little so tehy don’t care that much. Charity has no one available to make a stink about it. So its just kind of passed through.
I want a lore dump too, but i’d love for it to be in story format like this one has been or done in a series of shorts or mock-news articles and whatnot.
other countries will be handled through the narrative. I could create a giant lore dump post but than it gets difficult to keep all that straight as i don’t have any actual touchstone other then that one post. So I will often forget about it.
Where if its part of a narrative I am able to keep it straight.
Dose popole form other countries eat tinyes chloe says she go to restaurant whree they put tiny people in glass cage next of the lobsters cage?
some third world countries do which canonically are more lawless lands in this world. But not in any1st world nations or more civilized countries. But there are places in the world that allow it.
So if the Roman empire still exits what’s the status of Europe? Iirc they are like a coalition now under the Romans? Honestly the idea of Rome existing is a pretty big thing to overlook in this world. Wars not fought and empires not existing. Was there ever even a world war if Rome would’ve existed. And how could the US be so influential with a large millennia old Empire is still around. There’s just too much juicy stuff
Well we haven’t really had any stories take place in Europe. So I don’t normally flesh out how it all works until I write a story or need too. So I really just have a high level overview..
generally speaking I have it setup where each European country is a Roman state. So instead of being a member of the EU they are just states of the Roman Empire.
There was no world wars because there was no point.
The U.S. is powerful because they have technological superiority, they have superiority when it come to moving and transit of goods, they also have superority in the fact they were the country least affected by Smallara.
The U.S. also maintains military superiority. The Romans empire is second most powerful country in this world. Tentatively I have rome controlling:
the core of roman empire in this world is:
They have strength in mediterrian obviously with control of the following countries:
Greece, Cyprus – Achaea & Cypriot provinces
Balkans: Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, North Macedonia – ancient Illyricum, Moesia, Thrace
Turkey (western/central) – Asia Minor provinces
Malta – long-standing naval hub
they maintained holdings in Africa of the following countries:
Middle eastern countries of:
Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
Thats how I have tentatively mapped them out and there jurdictional control. Kind of using the area’s they historically had and then massaging things to work.
America is specifically allied to the following nations:
United States – political and cultural capital of the bloc
Canada – key ally, resource powerhouse, and Arctic gateway
Mexico – Key ally integrated via trade, manufacturing, and security
U.S. territories – Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands
Central and south America so basically
Central America: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama
Caribbean: Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Bahamas, Barbados, etc.
South America: Colombia, Venezuela (post-regime change), Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia—tied into American trade agreements and military partnerships
Europe:
Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland – modern, democratic, resource-rich
Eastern Europe: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Germany is also a US ally and not under roman control.
Saudi Arabia – oil ally
United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait – trade and military hubs
Oman – strategic control of the Strait of Hormuz
Africa
Mostly Sub-Saharan Africa, with key U.S.-aligned partners:
Asia-Pacific Powerhouse
All other countries are independent and not allied with rome or the us.
I think Chloe’s travels were deliberately left vague as to which countries she went to.
1) “her mind refused to obey the logic she clung to back then: She’s a maid, she’s beneath me. It didn’t hold” no it wouldn’t hold in her current situation.
2) “And somehow that girl had used her tiny, efficient Mexican government login to reclassify a Stevens heiress as a household pet” and what’s more it only took her a few minutes.
3) “She hated it. She didn’t want to see this world so clearly. She didn’t want to taste the stale perfume, or feel the steady furnace heat radiating from Alejandra’s lower back through the fabric” no I can’t imagine that’d be something she wants to be good at.
4) “She’s just a girl, Charity thought desperately. She’s just a girl!” she is, but now you’re even less than that.
5) “Alejandra was not just a girl anymore. She was a guardian. She was the guardian, and Charity, for all her sharp senses, was nothing but a highly evolved pet.” that’s another way of looking at it.
6) “She could sense everything. But none of it changed the truth:” no, if anything it’d reinforce it.
1) I agree a point comes where the lies one tells themselves just don’t compute anymore because of the reality of situation.
2) That is true. But thats how loopholes go and understanding the system. It just takes a person who knows how to make it work for them. Charity viewed alejandra as dumb but shes not. That was just perception. She really just lacked opportunity but when it presented itself she was able to take advantage. Opportuntiy is where knowledge and preperation meet as they say.
3) Charity clearly doesn’t like being in the position of weakness in any situation. So this would be an offputting position to be in.
4) just a girl is still above a little.
5)Probably not how charity wants to be viewed but probably closer to reality.
6) thats true feeling powerlessness that Charity is feeling for the first time. Its probably a new feeling for her.
Dose any one in mixco can have little people even the kids in the Elementary school ?
Anyone who is guardian trained. they don’t have age restrictions but you still have to be guardian trained and have the money to be able to afford a little. As while Mexico doesn’t have registration fees the actual cost of a little is higher because of that.
That’s interesting.
2) Well, opportunity never knocks twice, so she had to.
3) in fairness, most people wouldn’t want that.
4) my point exactly