Tuesday started out pretending to be normal.
Dayton stood at her locker, spinning the dial with numb fingers, the hallway buzzing around her. The air smelled like floor cleaner and too many bodies. Someone down the hall was arguing with a vending machine. Somewhere else, a Little’s laugh floated up, high and sharp, before getting drowned under the bell.
Nicole slammed her own locker shut three doors down and drifted over, backpack half unzipped, one earbud still in.
“Morning, Guardian Barbie,” she said. “Sleep okay or did you stay up writing angry Yelp reviews about the amp dial.”
“Ha ha,” Dayton muttered. The lock finally clicked. She yanked the door open. “I slept fine.”
“You looked like you were doing murder math in English yesterday,” Nicole said. “Like, calculating how many inches of leash you’d legally be allowed to give him.”
Hayden slid in on Dayton’s other side, already halfway through a breakfast bar. “She’s gonna say it’s not about him,” Hayden said with her mouth full. “Three, two, one…”
“It’s not about him,” Dayton said.
“Boom,” Hayden said. “Called it.”
Dayton swapped out her science book for her English binder. The edge of her Guardian manual peeked out on the top shelf, the SEA logo staring at her like a reminder.
“It’s about the law,” she added.
“There it is,” Nicole said. “God, you’re so hot when you’re in love with federal regulation.”
“Shut up,” Dayton said, but there was a tiny smile at the corner of her mouth.
Hannah arrived like she always did, quiet and kind of late, braid over one shoulder, arms around a stack of notebooks. She blinked when she saw the three of them clustered there. “Are we talking about him again?”
“We’re talking about everything except him,” Nicole said. “Except we’re actually talking about him.”
Hannah’s cheeks went a little pink. “He was… fine yesterday,” she said. “He didn’t yell at anyone.”
“He didn’t need to,” Nicole said. “He weaponized tone and minor errands.”
“Don’t say weaponized tone,” Hayden said. “He’ll steal that as a vocab word.”
The second bell beeped faintly down the hall.
“Come on,” Dayton said. “I want a seat before the entire back row turns into a Fortnite lobby.”
They moved as a unit toward the language arts wing, sliding through traffic like they’d practiced it. Other kids peeled off into social studies, math, and the bathroom. The noise thickened and thinned with each turn.
As they approached Room 305, the hallway buzz shifted, the way it always did. People got a little quieter, a little sharper. Rhys’s room had that weird gravity now. Part curiosity, part respect, part “tiny teacher, oh my god.”
They squeezed into their usual row: Hayden by the window, then Dayton, then Nicole on the aisle. Hannah took the desk in front of Dayton, already pulling out her pastel pens.
The front desk was empty. No platform. No teacher.
“He’s late,” Nicole said, sounding personally offended.
“He has to get carried here,” Hayden said. “It’s not like he can sprint up the stairs.”
“Imagine if he could though,” Nicole whispered. “Little four inch track star, just booking it.”
Dayton was about to tell them to stop when the door opened, and Ms. Whittaker bustled in, hair already escaping her clip, tote bag banging against her hip. In her hands she held the transfer board.
On it, tiny and impossibly self-possessed, stood Mr. Rhys.
“Excuse the delay,” he said, his voice clear through the ceiling speaker the second she set the board down on his platform. “My chauffeur was waylaid by sixth graders asking about similes.”
“Sorry,” Ms. Whittaker sighed. “They saw you and started asking if you were, like, a guest speaker.”
“I am, technically,” he said. “Every day. You’re free.”
She slid the transfer board out from under him and left. The door shut behind her.
He took exactly three steps to the center of his laminated “stage,” straightened his tiny tie, and scanned the room. His gaze bounced past Dayton like she was just another desk.
“Good morning,” he said. “Phones away. Brains on. Or at least idling.”
A couple of kids laughed.
Then he clapped his hands once, a sharp little sound, more for himself than them.
“Pop quiz,” he announced.
Groans exploded.
“No,” Nicole whispered. “He’s evil.”
Dayton swallowed. Her stomach did that weird little drop it had started doing in here lately.
Beside his tablet sat a tiny stack of even tinier papers. Each one was Little-sized, his handwriting scale. There was no universe in which he could carry them around the full-sized room by himself.
“Six questions,” he went on. “Short answer. No notes. This will assess whether you read what you claimed you read.”
He turned slightly, the way you did when you already knew where your next move was going.
“Dayton,” he said, not looking at her. “Please distribute these.”
There it was.
Her name in his mouth like it was nothing. No Miss. No Guardian. Just Dayton, like he was calling roll at recess.
Every eye near her seemed to flick over at once.
She hesitated for half a second. Half a heartbeat. Long enough to feel it. Then she stood.
“You’re doing great, sweetie,” Nicole whispered.
Dayton wanted to elbow her but didn’t.
She walked up to the front. Up close, the stack of quiz slips looked like something from a dollhouse classroom. Her brain flashed through training, humming quietly.
Use two hands when possible. Keep items at chest height. Don’t create hazards.
She reached with one hand.
“You can use both,” he said mildly, still marking something on his tablet. “I’m sure your wrists can handle the strain.”
A few kids snickered.
She split the stack into two neat halves, grabbed them in both hands, and turned.
“Two per row,” he said. “Start in the back. They require the most supervision.”
Someone in the back let out a fake offended gasp.
She moved down the aisle, placing tiny quiz slips on each desk. As she passed, people watched her. Some smirked. Some looked curious. One kid in the second row stage-whispered, “Of course the Guardian’s doing it,” and someone shushed him.
Her neck burned.
She got to the last row, dropped the last slips, looped back through the middle. Each trip was one more reminder: he can’t do this without help. Specifically, without you.
When she finished, she brought the leftover slips back to the corner of his platform. He didn’t look at her.
“Begin,” he said to the class.
Pens hit paper. The room went quiet except for the scribble of answers and occasional sighs.
Dayton retreated to her seat, sat, and tried to pretend she didn’t feel like she’d just been turned into furniture.
Nicole slid her quiz toward her. “Question one,” she mouthed. “On a scale of one to ten, how much do you hate him right now.”
Dayton rolled her eyes. Then actually read the question on her paper.
The quiz was nothing. Stuff she knew. Whitman terms. Basic lit analysis. She filled in the answers on autopilot, hand moving while her brain replayed the last five minutes like it was stuck.
Please distribute these.
She could feel Hayden’s foot bouncing under the desk behind her, a nervous drumbeat.
When it was over, Rhys made them swap quizzes with the person next to them, ran through the answers, tossed off a couple of mini lectures about comma splices. It felt almost like a normal class with a normal teacher.
Until he switched gears.
He slid the tiny quiz stack to one side, picked up his marker, and wrote on his miniature board: I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC.
“Let’s talk Whitman,” he said. “Bodies. Politics. All the fun stuff.”
He laid out the basics. Cataloguing. Equal attention. The way Whitman put workers, enslaved people, mothers, lovers in one long list like they belonged to the same universe.
“Whitman treats the body as sacred,” he said. “But we live in systems that treat bodies like things. So. How do you reconcile the body as sacred with systems that objectify it.”
Silence stretched for a second.
Then his eyes locked on Dayton.
“Dayton,” he said. “Help us out.”
She knew it was coming. She’d still hoped he’d pick literally anyone else.
She lifted her chin. “Power decides sanctity,” she said. “If the body is controlled, it’s not sacred anymore. It’s property.”
Her own words tasted like they’d been pulled out of a Guardian training manual and stripped down.
His mouth curved. “Ah. So the hand holding the leash decides what’s holy.”
A couple kids snorted. Someone whispered, “Yo,” under their breath.
“Property can still be valued,” Dayton added, because that part mattered. “It can be protected, cared for. That doesn’t change that it belongs to someone.”
“Your home has value,” he agreed. “Your shoes. Your favorite hoodie. Your dog. They’re all property. You might love them, but they don’t have a say in who owns them.”
He let that hang.
“Property with mandated care is still property,” he said. “We give houses inspections. We give pets vets. Littles get Guardians. The language changes, but the power flow doesn’t.”
Nicole’s pen had stopped moving. Hayden was staring out the window like she was trying not to actually look at him.
“What you just said,” he went on, “is beautifully SEA generitech guardian trainning approved. Power and sanctity. Control and property.” He tilted his head, the overhead light catching the silver at his temples. “Spoken like someone very familiar with ownership.”
Someone in the back coughed to cover a laugh. It didn’t cover it.
Dayton felt the heat crawl up her chest to her face but kept her expression flat. “That’s what Guardians are for,” she said. “To take responsibility.”
“Mm,” he said. “Is that how it feels to the people wearing the collars, I wonder.”
No one answered.
He turned away from her and kept going, unpacking Whitman, talking about resistance and commodification, using phrases like “lived body” and “social flesh” that made half the class space out and the other half scribble desperately.
But every time he said property or ownership, Dayton felt it like a poke.
By the end of the period, her notes had neat lines of analysis and little dents where she’d pressed too hard.
They regrouped at lunch like they always did. Same table near the windows and the oak tree, plastic trays, Chicken tenders, too bright juice boxes. The cafeteria sounded like a zoo that had learned to yell words.
Nicole slid into her seat across from Dayton and dropped her tray like it was an insult. “I hate him,” she announced.
“You said that yesterday,” Hayden pointed out, unscrewing her water bottle.
“Yeah, and I meant it yesterday too,” Nicole said. “Today it’s, like, upgraded hate. Hate plus DLC.”
Hannah sat down next to Nicole, carefully avoiding the sticky patch on the bench. “He didn’t yell or anything,” she said. “He was… calm.”
“That’s the problem,” Nicole said. “Calm but evil. That’s the worst combo.”
Dayton poked at her tenders. It kind of looked back. “Can we not call my teacher evil out loud in the room with three SEA posters,” she said.
“Sorry,” Nicole said, not sorry at all. “He’s a delightful ray of sunshine who is also kind of a jerk to you specifically.”
“That’s just how he teaches,” Hannah said. “He always picks someone to push in discussions. Last year it was me, remember? With the whole ‘Hannah, defend capitalism’ thing.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t have a government certification he could throw shade at,” Nicole said. “He’s doing Guardian-specific trolling.”
Hayden chewed slowly, watching Dayton. “It definitely feels targeted,” she said.
Dayton exhaled. “He called on me because I know the answer,” she said. “He knows I did the reading.”
“He made you pass out his tiny quizzes like you were a Roomba,” Nicole shot back.
“Roombas vacuum,” Hayden said. “She was more like… a delivery drone.”
“Thank you, that’s so much better,” Dayton said.
“I’m just saying,” Nicole went on, “the Guardian girl being the one who has to do all the hauling for the Little teacher is a choice.”
Hannah twisted her napkin between her fingers. “He is tiny, though,” she said, almost apologetic. “He literally can’t reach half the stuff. Somebody has to help.”
“Yeah, somebody,” Nicole said. “Like, I don’t know, literally anyone else in the class.”
“She’s the one who knows how not to drop him,” Hayden pointed out. “If he asked Chris to carry him, Chris would try to do, like, a trick shot with the transfer board.”
Nicole cracked up. “The Rhys toss.”
Dayton couldn’t help smiling for half a second before her face settled back into neutral. “Exactly,” she said. “It’s not like I’m being singled out to torture me. I’m the safest option.”
“Cool,” Nicole said. “You’re the safest option he’s turning into a human extension cord.”
Hannah glanced between them. “I don’t think he means it like that,” she said softly. “He still smiles at you. It’s not… mean, mean.”
“Yeah, it’s worse,” Nicole said. “It’s that teacher roast mean where you can’t call it out because then you look dramatic. ‘Spoken like someone familiar with ownership’?” She put on a fake Mr. Rhys voice. “Sir. Be serious.”
Hayden nodded slowly. “That line was rough.”
Dayton pushed her tenders around, drawing an unconscious circle in the bbq sauce. “He was making a point,” she said. “About Whitman. And about how we see bodies. It’s not that deep.”
“It is literally that deep,” Nicole said. “He turned Guardian stuff into a punchline. Like, ha ha, look at Dayton with the leash metaphors, isn’t that wild.”
“It is what I signed up for,” Dayton said. “Guardians are the ones in control. That’s the job.”
“Yeah, but he said it like you enjoy that part,” Hayden said quietly. “Like you like owning people.”
Dayton looked up at her. Hayden held her gaze, calm and worried at the same time.
“I don’t,” Dayton said.
“I know,” Hayden said. “Obviously. I just… I don’t think he does.”
Hannah bit her lip. “Or he does, and that’s why he keeps poking it.”
Nicole stabbed one of her chicken tenders. “He’s trying to make you snap,” she said. “Like, if you go off on him, he can be like, wow, see, Guardians are unstable, guess I shouldn’t be collared.”
“Guardians are not unstable,” Dayton said automatically.
“Yeah, but imagine being four inches tall and watching the kid who technically has the power to put a leash on you sit in the third row,” Hayden said. “He’s freaked out. He’s just… too proud to say it.”
“Plus he’s Rhys,” Nicole added. “He probably thinks if he loses the power dynamic in his classroom, he’s dead.”
Hannah nodded a little. “Whitman plus ego plus trauma,” she said. “That’s a lot.”
Dayton sat back, the noise of the cafeteria blurring for a second. She could see him in her head as clearly as if he were standing on the table in front of them. The stack of books. The tiny hand. The way he’d said obedience.
“Maybe he’s trying to prove he doesn’t need a Guardian,” Hannah said. “Like if he can still run the class, then nobody can say he’s… less.”
“He is less,” Nicole said. “That’s literally the point. He’s a different species. The government said so. I love Kinsley but its just cruel to pretend nothing has changed. The world changed, she changed. I dont love her less because she’s a little but even Kinsley knows littles arent people. It wasn’t easy but she accepted it.”
Hannah flinched a little at that. “He’s still him, though.”
“It doesn’t matter what he’s trying to prove,” Dayton said, sharper than she meant to. All three of them looked at her. She took a breath, tried again. “The law doesn’t care how good of a teacher he is. Or how he feels. Littles need Guardians. Period. He’s uncollared. That’s… wrong.”
“You’re still thinking about filing,” Hayden said. Not a question.
“Yes.”
Hannah’s eyes went wide. “On him? For real?”
Nicole leaned in, elbows on the table. “You’d actually do it?”
Dayton stared at the cheap cafeteria fork in her hand. The metal was already bent a little. “If I don’t,” she said, “who will?”
There it was. The part she hadn’t said out loud before.
Nicole blew out a breath. “You really are gonna be on a SEA poster someday.”
“Yeah,” Hayden said. “The one that says, ‘When the adults screw up, please contact a responsible eighth grader.’”
Hannah frowned. “Do you think he’d hate you if you did it?”
Dayton thought about his face when she’d said “I’m certified.” The little flicker in his eyes. The way he’d said, “And yet here you are, passing out my papers.”
“He already kind of hates me,” she said.
“No, he doesn’t,” Hannah insisted. “He just…”
“He doesn’t respect me,” Dayton corrected. “Which is worse.”
Nicole went quiet at that, chewing her lip.
“I’m not doing it to hurt him,” Dayton said. “I’m not doing it to show off. I’m doing it because an uncollared Little in a public school is a problem. I’m trained to fix problems like that.”
“Even when the problem is a person who gives you A’s,” Nicole said.
“Especially then,” Dayton said. “If I only followed the rules when it was easy, what’s the point of the training.”
For a second, nobody said anything. The cafeteria roared around them, kids shouting, a lunch monitor yelling at someone to stop throwing grapes.
Finally Hayden nudged her with her knee under the table. “Okay,” she said. “If this is the hill you’re dying on, I’m with you. I’ll stand at your funeral and tell everyone you were very brave and also extremely annoying.”
Nicole snorted. “I’ll design the slideshow.”
Hannah twisted her napkin until it tore. “I’ll… bring tissues,” she said.
Dayton rolled her eyes, but her throat felt tight in a way that had nothing to do with almost crying. “You’re all idiots,” she said.
“Yeah,” Nicole said. “But we’re your idiots.”
“Facts,” Hayden added.
Hannah smiled, small but real. “He really is being a jerk, though,” she said. “You’re not crazy.”
Dayton looked down at her tray, then up at her friends, then past them, through the cafeteria windows where a Little-safe ramp glinted in the weak sunlight.
“Good,” she said. “Because tomorrow, if he pulls this again, I’m done pretending it’s not on purpose.”
They moved on to other topics after that. Math homework. Hayden’s science project. A rumor about a fight in the gym.
But under all of it, for Dayton, Tuesday had shifted.
English class wasn’t just a place with poems and a tiny teacher she used to admire.
It was now also Exhibit A.
A battle for control. Let’s see who wins the tiny teacher or the Guardian-trained student.
Honestly, if I were a guardian, I wouldn’t want one of my teachers as my little.
Well want and will take are different
Dayton has been denied getting a Little multiple times; she’s kind of desperate.
Mostly by her mother
“SEA generitech guardian trainning approved”
dudes totally anti-big government and i’m here for it lol
also, if you looks at the stuff he’s referencing and why he’s choosing dayton specifically, it’s pretty clear he’s making strong arguments against the guardian system. Which i like. I don’t think the system as it is now is the right answer and I think he’s making good arguments to that point, I just don’t think Dayton will see it that way
personally I think Dayton’s lying to herself about what this is about. Her mom’s hinted at it, Rhys clearly sees it, her friends are picking up on it. The law issue’s a smokescreen. even if he was collared and he did speak in a tone that she respected, she’d still be in a position of being under his authority in the class room and he’d not change at all and it would still piss her the fuck off. Dayton seems a lot more receptive when these issues are brought up through literature and metaphors too, so she might actually do some real critical thinking and self-reflection, something i think she’s already done in earlier chapters. It’s just a matter of how long it takes.
I would disagree only in that if he was collared and respectful. That nothing would change.
As she doesn’t have to like something to comply with it for a class period.
His actions I do think factor into her overall choices and feelings.
I also think the fact it’s Dayton changes people’s views. If I had swapped Dayton for Kayla. People I believe would feel different about mr Rhys approach and stances as it would be colored through the lens of someone people like. As opposed to Dayton
I think that’s partly true. Yeah if Rhys was treating Kayla like this as she is now it’d be a real asshole thing to do, but if Kayla outside the class was talking about expecting obedience, correcting his behavior, saying a little being a teacher is like a golden retriever being a teacher, and was giving off vibes that this is more about control and her controlling a little so strong that her own parents were concerned, i’d probably feel the same. possible more mad cause of the fact it is kayla lol if you replace dayton with a new character, just based on these past few chapters and how her tone feels and her word choice and things like that, it almost sounds like a person that’s bought into Cindy’s way of thinking to me. like in the other chapter where dayton gives her mom the letter and they talk about it, any newly introduced character or just removing the characters and making the conversation a mystery would make me think they’re pro-cindy views and anti-chloe views.
like if none of the other stuff was coming up, i’d be less critical of Dayton because yeah, by law he does need to be collared, which is bs but it’s the law, and a guardian at the very least in the area supervising and things like that would keep him safer, though Rhys would probably get annoyed if that changed from how it is now to every instruction and whatnot he gave having the responses get directed to the guardian vs back to him, if that part makes sense (couldn’t figure out how to explain it clearly lol)
The point is though these characters exist within their world and the laws, and rules, and societal values that are within there world and there morality.
so to say if Kayla expected obedience and correcting behavior would be normal within the world of smallara.
Saying Mr. Rhys is a golden retriever is meant becuase they are both equal not in terms of intelligence but similar in societal standing within the society of their world.
As both Kelli and Mr. Rhys cannot live on their own independently without outside help. Mr Rhys and Kelli would both die of starvation or thirst even if they could avoid predators. They don’t ahve the access to or abiltiy to survive or build a home. They aren’t able to readily fight back against predators A mosquito could kill them.
While they maintain there intelligence they are solely dependant on human society to exist. Which is a core difference between human and little. A little cannot survive on their own no matter how much they want too. As they just wouldnt’ get enough nutrients so biologically speaking the virus without human intervention shrinks and then slowly kills them.
However, humans intervened and made food there bodies process. They provide care and protection from the elevements and predators. While a person coudl argue they have the ability to build there own soceity they lack there materials and skills to do so.
In the modern world very few people have the skills and ability to build a home scratch with no tools, no materials, nothing. Just dropped in teh woods and forced to live forever.
As it sits right now what’s to stop a student from not liking the grade Mr. Rhys hands out and slapping him across the room from atop the desk? If cassie doesnt come to get him he can’t leave the desk. The drop is to far and its tile. He would crack his head open.
The only thing I will say that is unfair is the government isnt providing the littles a choice. They could at the time of infection be given the option to enter the system or just exist on their own.
As the laws would stay the same. As those are the laws so a family member could choose to illegally and wthout license care for them but then if its found out the family member and the little would have to accept the consequences of violating the law.
The little would in essence be choosing to live with government and human support or leave there belongings and old life behind and live on their own. Where they would essence walkout the hospital doors and just exist doding footsteps, animals, people, scavening for enough nutrients not to die. Finding shelter from the weather in a colder climate like new york when winter hits probably dying as based on the size the idea of htem being able to migrate far enough to a warmer climate is nil.
I dont think its fair but thats reality when i actually map it out realistically when i was setting things up. As I also have to look at it as everything in our world doesnt exist. I cant look at it from our morals, our values, our history, how we got to here. everything we have learned throughout history as those are our worlds learned experiences but its not theirs.
The Romans learned the hard way what happens when you use lead for pipes but thats our history not there learned expierence. So to hold them or think of them in our standards and morality is something i never do in writing. i view everything solely through them and what they know.
Within the confines of their world, Dayton isnt wrong. I may not like it personally but i can’t fault her existing in a society that is diferent then mine and believes different then mine.
I love Kelli but part of me thinks she needs someone like Sara or Dayton to keep her safe because the refuses to admit she has limits as a little that will get her hurt.
I think Kayla’s the perfect guardian for her. All she needs to do is learn to stand up for herself against people that push her around, but other wise she pretty much lets kelli be herself and doesn’t do much to change her, while making sure she is generally safe. otherwise Kelli wouldn’t be Kelli, and then Kayla would be a worse guardian lol
Well the Kayla and Kelli relationship is the only one we’ve seen depicted where the little has the real authority, which one could argue puts Kelli in an unsafe position because Kayla doesn’t normally step up to Kelli.
Speaking with the confines of only the created world. It could be viewed as Kayla being unsafe, where if Kelli were seriously hurt Kayla could be in trouble.
As we have seen Kelli and Kayla get into a fight and then she left Kelli with Talisa. Which one can easily argue was a bad choice and if Talisa had done anything wrong or something went wrong.
As leaving kelli with Talisa is very different then leaving kelli with Ellie or Chloe or Sara.
thats fair. yeah in the regard of safe keeping Kelli, she needs to be a bit more like Sara or Dayton for sure. Like I full agree with the point where a little needs a guardian because physically it is safer. I just don’t think we’d see the same Kelli if she were with someone like Sara or Dayton. Ellie maybe. I Kind of see Ellie as the middle ground of overbearing and not interested enough, if that makes sense. I can see her and her little being a “left to your own devices, but i’m still checking on you and what not constantly” type of thing. She just doesn’t seem like the type to throw her authority around, otherwise she’d probably be more open about who here dad is.
I think with Ellie it would depend on who her little is to really say what she woudl be like. As i think Dayton and Sara wouldnt really change there style to a great extent regardless of who the little is. Ther would be some change but nothing dramatic.
where Ellie depending who her little is would be more or less interested or more or less involved. If jordy was her little seh would be very different then Mr. Rhys as Ellie’s little.
Ellie and Carter are probably the two guardians I’m the most interested in getting a few chapters about at somepoint. They’re both interesting. Carter especially; him casually mentioning his own little has made me curious what his style of guardian looks like since he’s in the same world as Kayla but at a public school. just feel like it’d be a very different setup than what we have seen
I’m interested in seeing Sydney (she was Dayton’s partner during guardian training early on in this story) and her little.
it happens on the in universe day of saturday
Yeah I’m with you, big goverment is like a army of hall monitors taking your money and telling you to do stuff that doesn’t make sense lol
also, nicole, yeah your sisters changed, but her attitude and behavior and the stuff you and dayton say’s different about her is probably because she is now treated differently. Kinsley would probably have the same spark otherwise. but that’s just me. like yeah be a guardian, keep her safe, but if you did more to help her with some independence she’s probably act more like her old self while still accepting things have changed.
granted, haven’t seen kinsley or how she and nicole act and understand nicole is still young, so for all i know nicole could be doing that the best she can already, but still, if you went from treating her like your sister to treating her like a sister who is now a little, that’d probably change her personality without you really thinking about it.
I hope Kinsley accepts the limitations being a little and listens to her sister to make her guardian job easy to the can both enjoy the changes that happen instead of making it hard to both of them.
it’s possible that Nicole’s the reason this isn’t enjoyable. I think any guardian that’s restricting their littles personality or forcing their own idea of what a little should be on them the way a lot of them have been doing thus far have also been the worst guardians. It’s like they look at them and think because they have changed biologically, they need to be taught to have a different personality, which is stupid.
1) “Tuesday started out pretending to be normal.” it could just be normal if Dayton got over herself.
2) “Morning, Guardian Barbie,” I could see Mattel making that in this world.
3) “God, you’re so hot when you’re in love with federal regulation.” Flirting or regular teasing?
4) “Don’t say weaponised tone, He’ll steal that as a vocab word.” I’d’ve thought she stole that phrase from him
5) “Rhys’s room had that weird gravity now. Part curiosity, part respect, part “tiny teacher, oh my god.” That makes sense, I can see him getting more respect from some now.
6) “Dayton, please distribute these.” You have a whole class, dude, not just her.
7) “She walked up to the front. Up close, the stack of quiz slips looked like something from a dollhouse classroom. Her brain flashed through training, humming quietly. Use two hands when possible. Keep items at chest height. Don’t create hazards” It’s not that deep, Dayton.
8) “She reached with one hand.” oh, ignoring the training? Lol
9) “You can use both. I’m sure your wrists can handle the strain.” Put the shovel down, Ezra, your grave’s getting too deep.
10) “Of course, the Guardian’s doing it,” jealousy?
11) “Dayton retreated to her seat, sat, and tried to pretend she didn’t feel like she’d just been turned into furniture.” Humbling her is good, but he has other students to worry about; singling her out like this is not a good plan
12) “She knew it was coming. She’d still hoped he’d pick literally anyone else” It’s getting to the point where it’s not fair on the other students
13) “Power decides sanctity. If the body is controlled, it’s not sacred anymore. It’s property.” Definitely the Dayton answer
14) . “Ah. So the hand holding the leash decides what’s holy.” Sounds like what she’d believe
15) “What you just said is beautifully SEA generitech guardian training approved. Power and sanctity. Control and property. Spoken like someone very familiar with ownership.” Salt on the wound, in isolation, this’d be hilarious, but stop poking bears, you little twat.
16) “That’s what Guardians are for, to take responsibility.” – “Is that how it feels to the people wearing the collars, I wonder?” Good question, but Dayton doesn’t give a shit about them or how they feel.
17) “Can we not call my teacher evil out loud in the room with three SEA posters,” Someone’s getting possessive already.
18) “He’s a delightful ray of sunshine who is also kind of a jerk to you specifically.” Definitely not his best move, I get why he’d wanna make sure Dayton knows her place, but not the best move nonetheless.
19) “He’s doing Guardian-specific trolling.” That’s a good way to put it, and don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot about guardian training that needs to be criticised, but not like this.
20) “The Guardian girl being the one who has to do all the hauling for the Little teacher is a choice.” it is, one signing his obliteration warrant.
21) “He is tiny, though; he literally can’t reach half the stuff. Somebody has to help.” Literally anyone in the classroom could, though.
22) “She’s the one who knows how not to drop him,” Has he asked Dayton to hold him, r just asked her to do regular classroom tasks?
23) “It’s not like I’m being singled out to torture me. I’m the safest option.” Weird to see Dayton defend him; it’s fishy.
24) “He turned Guardian stuff into a punchline. Like, ha ha, look at Dayton with the leash metaphors, isn’t that wild.” Guardian training is kind of a joke, given who they give licenses to.
25) “Yeah, but he said it like you enjoy that part, like you like owning people.” She does, loves it, craves it, even if she lies about that later.
26) “He’s trying to make you snap, like, if you go off on him, he can be like, wow, see, Guardians are unstable, guess I shouldn’t be collared.” not the worst plan, wouldn’t work though
27) “Guardians are not unstable,” depends on the guardian
28) “He probably thinks if he loses the power dynamic in his classroom, he’s dead.” His career could be dead, not his actual life, though.
29) “Maybe he’s trying to prove he doesn’t need a Guardian, like if he can still run the class, then nobody can say he’s… less.” Another excellent theory
30) “That’s literally the point. He’s a different species. The government said so. I love Kinsley, but it’s just cruel to pretend nothing has changed. The world changed, she changed. I don’t love her less because she’s a little, but even Kinsley knows littles aren’t people. It wasn’t easy, but she accepted it.” Because you would’ve fucking forced her to, “accept or suffer the consequences” type shit. Now you can’t stand seeing another Little not live as less, potentially because it makes you regret what you did to her.
31) “He already kind of hates me,” Can you blame him? You hate Littles, insist in treating them like lesser beings, pets and/or slaves and yet get surprised that a Little might not like that about you?
32) “He doesn’t respect me, which is worse.” That’s rich coming from someone who clearly doesn’t respect him either.
33) “I’m not doing it to hurt him, I’m not doing it to show off. I’m doing it because an uncollared Little in a public school is a problem. I’m trained to fix problems like that.” you can add on as much as you want, at the end of the day your core motivation is he made you feel small and you want revenge for that.
34) “If I only followed the rules when it was easy, what’s the point of the training?” I’m gonna hold you to that, Dayton, it’s not like you don’t already have a history of rule-breaking.
35) “He really is being a jerk, though.” His jerkiness seems concentrated on a student who’s made it a point to look down on him and people like him, not saying it’s a good idea, but it’s not purposeless either.
35) have a feeling Dayton wont get him but I wish she would so she can turn the tables on the little jerk
35) one could argue that this situation is already tabkes being turned on Dayton.
Tuesday’s aren’t normally great to be fair.
I could see that as well. 100% there would be a guardian barbie.
More just regular teasing but a slight edge of flirtiness just for fun and vibes.
Not yet atleast. Mr. Rhys hasn’t used that one.
i like the idea of tiny teacher oh my god energy, It seems very teenger like.
That is part of Dayton’s issue with him. He is purposefully singling her out. This is kind of showing how Mr. Rhys is towards Dayton for her school career. Full size and tiny.
Well she doesnt want to give him anything to use against her. So shes conscious everything was what was i kind going for. Like when you know you are under a microscope.
Well there tiny sheets of paper.
lol, He is going in hard. Wait till you see tomorrows.
No the class is picking up on his treatment towards Dayton and guardians. Dayton is also fairly popular in the school. People do like her even if the comment section doesnt.
He does but this is how he normally treats Dayton. Which is why i made some of my earlier comments about him being a teacher and ethics.
The other students know he’s going to single out Dayton and sometimes her friends. You hear later or maybe it was mentioned today or yesterday where in a prior year he singled out hannah for a bit. Granted it was becuase she is with dayton but still.
The sign of a well written character when the readers know what her response should be based on who she is as a person.
Although Dayton never leashed Thomas from what i remember. Ironically Thomas and Dayton becamer friends.
You know its to much when Lethal is saying something about treatment towards Dayton who you would rather see rot in the deepest rung of hell. Although you may hate Sara more. Well hate might be a bit much but dislike.
I wouldnt say she doesnt give a shit. As she has littles she cares about. Its doubtful Mr. Rhys is one of those littles.
Or she doesn’t want any more attention drawn towards her as she is already being singled out by him enough without the jokes and added attention.
I think as a teacher its a bit much to do to your student. When they are also your studetn you get the luxury of singling them out like that. Atleast not normally. Ehtically and morally he’s held to a higher standard.
I think its fair to criticize guardian training. The point of guardian training is kind of like democracy where its the best system we know but no one is saying its perfect. Thats literally guardian training system in a nutshell.
I would personally never condone revenge in a situation like this. But if I were dayton I cant say I wouldnt think about it.
Yeah thats the biggest flaw with the argument is he is unfairly picking on dayton to a degree where i could understand a situation where he needed to be handled deferring to dayton or calling upon her. But anyone could do alot of the stuff he could call on anyone not just dayton.
Not that has been depicted yet from what I recall.
Well she has grown as a person seh isnt the same person who handled Jordy. I’m not saying she is saint harris or anything but she also isnt the same bully she was earlier in the story. She does listen and takes sara’s words to heart. She has learned more as a guardian and gone through the training.
I dont think its a joke but I think where your issue with it lies is that it doesnt have room for morality. Its not saying you are a good or bad person so you get to do this. Or becuase you are bad you cant do this. But its also something vary american in that morality and ethics dont always factor into if you can or cant do something if you have shown you can pass the test or meet the requirements.
Im not sure i agree with that. She does like control and she likes authority but owning them specifically im not sure matters to Dayton.
that is part of what he is doing. I mean its not a major part but it is a small piece. I agree it woudlnt work. But i say onyl a small piece as he did this to dayton before he was a little as well.
well i agree with that but the larger point being a guardian doesnt make you unstable. Where you are stable or not is independant of that certification.
Well he could also be in danger if he loses control. As it woudlnt take much for a 13 year old to get upset. they could do some real harm to him.
It would be pretty bold to be trying to prove you don’t need a guardian while also accepting the handout and benefits derived from the same system. I mean you can’t have it both ways. You cant be saying i don’t need the governmetns help or its systems while also accepting housing, and pay, benefits, protection, etc.
You see more of Kinsley later when Dayton goes to visit her. So I will refrain from saying further to not spoil or influence anything.
He did this before he was a little though. He is just picking on her guardianship now because she is a guardian But if she wasnt a guardian he would just find something else. As thats what he did to her 6th and 7th grade.
I still hold to the fact that Daytons issue with him is not respect based. Her issue is he he is in violation of the law. Now her wanting to point out his infractions you could argue are encouraged by his treatment. Which I think is fair. But I wouldnt say she doesnt respecet him. She certainly doesnt like him but he’s kind of jerk to her.
America has decimated entire armies for less. We literally destroyed half of Iran’s navy in 8 hours because one of our missle frigates ran into a iranian mine in international waters. the missle frigate didnt sink but was severely damaged and probably should have. We proceeded because of this slight after analyzing who mines belonged to destroyed half their navy for a “proportional” response.
America can be quite petty and a core motivation can be we are made to feel small. We literally developed nukes when Japan tried to make us feel inferior. we then proceeded to target a major city, wiping it off the face of the earth in succession, until Japan unconditionally surrendered.
She fucked up with that one. you have a mind like a trap too.
I mean what was his excuse when Dayton had to look up at him? I also think because of his position as a teacher he should ever take out his frustration on a student no matter how warranted it may be.
First of all let me say I appreciate your repeating Lethal’s remarks right before your answer, it saves me a lot of scrolling 😀
Now, my comment…
33) I don’t know where you learned American History, but that is not why America dropped nukes on Japan. The main reason was that America would rather kill several thousand of just the enemy rather than several thousand of the enemy and several thousand of their own troops. It was not an easy decision by Truman, he considered not doing it.
Japan did not try to make America feel inferior, it was the other way around. Before the war, America was cutting Japan off from natural resources (oil) and Japan figured they either had to bow down to America or declare war. Of course Japan had already invaded China at this point…
33) I wanted to try somethign different with quoting the question to see how it worked out. I think it worked pretty well personally.
Onto the fun part the historical talk.
You’re right that the US used economic pressure first, and Japan responded with war. That explains how the conflict started. I’m talking about why the US chose to end it with nuclear weapons specifically. By 1945, Japan was already on the defensive, looking for ways to end the war without total humiliation. The US insisted on unconditional surrender and chose a method that made its own overwhelming power undeniable. That isn’t just about oil; this is about America’s determination not to be attacked, humiliated, or constrained again
Look at the US behavior decades later. When the USS Samuel B. Roberts hit an Iranian mine in 1988, the US response was Operation Praying Mantis. A one day showing of overwhelming force that destroyed platforms and ships and became the biggest surface naval battle since WW2. Even the International Court of Justice said it was not strictly necessary for US security. That is how the US tends to respond to being hit; not just stop the attack, but make an unmistakable example.
So taking this back to the point when we talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of course there was a military rationale. But it fits the same pattern. Once the US has been attacked and has built up massive capability, it does not settle for a quiet face saving end. It unleashes a decisive and spectacular demonstration that says This is what happens if you hit us. That is a combination of strategy, prestige, and power.
After 9/11, the US doesn’t just hit al qaeda camps and go home. It topples (but doesnt eradicate) the Taliban, then uses the political shock to invade Iraq, which didn’t carry out 9/11, and builds a massive domestic security apparatus. That’s not just removing a threat; that’s remaking the landscape to reassert dominance.
This is a similar response and attitude by multiple different administrations across large swaths of US history. That becomes a pattern. That becomes an ingrained cultural identity that spans across an entire nation from generation to generation.
That’s why I said America can be quite petty when made to feel small. As America returns with what it views as proportional force and views of proportional force are not equal to what was done to them. Japan attacked pearl harbor we proceeded to wipe two cities of the map and were prepared to wipe more off until they undconditionally surrendered.
US hits iranian mines in international waters we proceed to decimate the majority of their navy.
You can rationalize these events with any number of reasons. The military always has a rational reason. The U.S. Government will always have a rational argument for why it’s doing what it’s doing that they feel justifies the actions taken. However, that doesn’t replace the fact that those actions weren’t necessary as Japan was already defeated and looking for an honorable exit. It doesnt replace the fact that Iran was no threat to us security yet the US proceeded to destroy and embarrass them on a national stage for basically sport.
So yes, I do believe and stand behind my points fully and I do understand american history. Even if you don’t agree with the my conclusions. I have valid reasons and arguments on why I said what I said.
I won’t try to rationalize U.S. military strikes since WWII. There is WAY too much political subtext since then (probably in WWII too). I understand your explanation above. Your original explanation seemed “off”.
The original explanation was a very high view as it was just a statement without the accompanying text as it would have doubled the size of the original post. But understandable why it was questioned without the broader subtext
1) My Tuesday starts with Monday’s Smallara episode, that’s pretty great
3) lol
5) Yeah, sounds right
7) She wants to stop him doing to her what she wants to do to him
8) see point 34
9) You’re making me nervous
10) Not gonna do him any favours
12) That was yesterday, I hope he’s better in other classes without these girls
14) Metaphorical leashes my friend
15) I’m still in Ezra’s side, but I still think professionalism is better. I don’t think making Dayton look or feel as shit as she acts is wrong, but there are limits
16) She doesn’t care about Ezra but wants to claim him
17) There’s the ulterior motive
18) He’s definitely being unprofessional, and I don’t like how constant it is
19) Fair enough, Chloe even thought it was a scam, and her company runs it.
23) Has she grown? And what does that matter? Did she make it up with Jordan? Give him a real apology, unlike the fake one from 309?
25) Owning them is how she gets control and authority
28) True, I remember there was an incident at school where a teacher got a black eye from a student.
29) I mean there are many dole-bludgers who’d fight you on that, but I take your meaning, but I think he’s proving that the rest can be sufficient without a guardian.
30) looking forward to it
31) But he’d still have been vulnerable and likely knew it, and Dayton’s not exactly quiet about her beliefs. I fully believe that the way he treats Dayton is based on that.
32) but you also confirmed if he’d called her “Miss Harris” like she wanted she’d have just moved on.
34) I’m gonna level up
35) Because he’d have known he was vulnerable and Dayton would put her opinions on display. I think his treatment of Dayton is the consequence of Dayton looking down on Littles, so when she tried to assert dominance over him, the consequence was him putting her in her place, and using her guardian status against her, and when he did that the consequence was Dayton plotting to claim him.
“Consequences have consequences” type thing.
A) “You’re doing great, sweetie,” Nicole whispered . I hope Dayton and Nicole are another lipstick lesbian couple with littles. Those are fun to read about
B) I’m surprised the teacher isn’t using Dayton to carry him around the class as he talks about English stuff lol.
C) I have a feeling Dayton isn’t going to get her teacher witch is too bad because I love the drama of social dynamics being switched with smallara lol.
B) that’s the funny thing to me. If she were to be his guardian, but was mandated to keep teaching because of whatever the districts doing, she would still have to do this stuff because he’s the teacher. hell that would be the biggest twist if he was testing her and he chose her to be his guardian because he know she can listen to orders lmao