Ezra J. Harris wanted to scream.
He wanted to yell so hard it punched through the polished cafeteria windows, splintered glass across the courtyard, and ricocheted down the halls of Roosevelt Middle School like a fire alarm nobody could ignore. He wanted his voice back in its old dimensions, old range, old authority. He wanted the sound to fill a room the way it used to, the way it used to make thirty kids go quiet without even realizing they’d done it.
But all of that lived behind the thin, fragile wall of a Little throat now.
The scream festered in his chest instead, hot and trapped, a pressure with nowhere to go.
He sat in a “Little sit.”
Not because he wanted to.
Because the posture was stable. Because the booster pad beneath him was soft in that humiliating way that wasn’t meant to comfort but to position. Because if he shifted wrong, his center of gravity would betray him. Because if he looked “difficult,” Dayton would correct him in that calm, sweet voice that made everyone around her assume she was being patient and responsible.
Sit this way, or risk tipping.
Sit this way, or risk a correction.
Sit this way, or risk becoming a spectacle.
The cafeteria buzzed with the deaf, bright violence of adolescence. Fluorescent lights. Sneakers on tile. Lunch trays clattering like castanets. It was the same soundscape he’d walked past for years, coffee in hand, barely registering it as a place.
Now it was everything.
It pressed on his ears. It filled his body. It made him feel like he was drowning in air.
In front of him sat the water bowl: translucent green plastic, shallow and wide, cool to the touch. The kind of dish you’d see beside an animal food mat. When he leaned closer, his reflection warped in the rippling surface, collar shimmering faintly around his throat. The little charm twitched each time he moved, a tiny jingle that announced his existence like a warning bell.
He lowered his mouth to the water.
And lapped.
Not because he wanted to. Not because it felt good. Because he was thirsty.
Because thirst didn’t care about dignity.
The water tasted clean, filtered, clearly Roosevelt water he had gotten used too.
He hated the way his tongue had to flick the surface. He hated how slow it was, how unnatural. He hated how it made him feel like a toddler.
But the method worked.
It didn’t rush through him the way it had earlier when he tried to sip from something upright. It stayed. It settled. It soaked into him gradually, like his body understood this rhythm. Like it had been built for it.
Like it had adapted.
He swallowed and felt relief spread through him in a slow, traitorous wave.
He hated that even more.
He hated that Dayton understood his body better than he did.
Not guessed. Not improvised. Understood. Like she had read him the way she read instruction manuals. Like she had studied him. Highlighted him. Annotated him.
That smug, academically precise little monster.
She wasn’t guessing when she told him bowls were safer.
She knew.
The worst part was how often she was right.
Ezra sat up, wiping his chin with the back of his wrist. His mouth felt less dry now. His mind felt… clearer. The fog in his mind he had been living with continued to lift thinning more and more, and it made him angry because it meant the system worked, even when it was humiliating.
Across the table, Dayton’s friends ate warm cafeteria food like it was normal. Plastic cups of fruit. Chicken tenders. A bag of chips. Human food, wrapped in paper and routine. Dayton’s tray looked like the trays of every other eighth grader, except for the clipped-on feeder bowl and the tiny dishes that made the whole thing look like a traveling kit.
And him.
He was chewing dry, beige nutrition pellets that turned to paste and tasted like responsibility. They were easier on his jaw than cafeteria food. He hated that, too. Hated how his new body had preferences he hadn’t approved.
The day had unraveled like a nightmare narrated in paperwork.
Dayton had walked into his class. Sat down. Students had been talking, restless, ordinary. He’d opened his mouth to start, and then the door swung wide and SEA agents stepped in like the room belonged to them.
Black uniforms. Hard expressions. The quiet mechanical authority of people who didn’t need to raise their voices because the law did it for them.
It had happened so fast he still couldn’t get his mind to line it up into a clean sequence.
There had been words. “Transfer.” “Guardian.” “Documents.” “Standard procedure.”
And then, somehow, he was on Dayton’s palm. On his way to the office. Reduced to an object that had to be carried because the building was too big to navigate alone.
Signed and sealed somewhere between one hallway and another.
Cassie Whittaker had already been assigned the moment his account shifted. That was what it had seemed like from teh way Cassie was talking earlier. That was what the portal probably showed.
And now Cassie stood in his classroom.
Not observing.
Teaching.
His students. His plans. His prompts. His carefully structured units that he’d refined for years, suddenly up for revision because he was no longer in the room to defend them.
He’d tried to reclaim something when she stopped at the lunch table. He’d spoken her first name without thinking, because for a flicker of a second his brain still believed he was an adult in an adult world.
Dayton had cut that illusion cleanly in half.
Ms. Whittaker.
And Cassie’s eyes had slid over him like he was a paperweight.
He could still feel the sting of it.
Like he didn’t exist.
Hannah’s tablet chimed, and she glanced down, reading aloud with the careless confidence of a thirteen year old who hadn’t yet learned how words could be weapons without even trying.
“She’s already modifying your units,” Hannah said, eyebrows lifting. “Ms. Whittaker says they’re a little dense. She’s breaking them down so people actually get it.”
People.
Ezra’s stomach turned.
As if he weren’t one anymore.
As if he’d been moved into a different category, a footnote. A cautionary example.
Dayton laughed at something Nicole said, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear with that practiced preteen motion that looked casual until you realized it was also a signal: I’m fine. I’m normal. Don’t look too closely.
Her tablet sat beside her iced tea. Her water bottle, bedazzled with a glittering letter D, threw tiny flashes of light onto the tabletop like it was celebrating.
She looked content.
Content.
As if this day, this first day with him officially hers, was just another Monday.
Ezra clenched his jaw until it ached.
He tried not to think about the bowl. Or the collar. Or the booster pad. Or the way every other student who glanced over didn’t look horrified, just… approving. Like: aw, she’s doing it right. That Little is well behaved.
A model.
A success story.
A product demonstration.
His world of lectures and journals and careful adult arguments had shrunk alongside his dignity, and he could feel the future closing in like a hallway he couldn’t turn around in.
Because Dayton wasn’t cruel. Not the obvious kind. She didn’t yank his collar. She didn’t shout.
She was worse.
She believed she was helping.
She believed she was doing the right thing.
And the terrifying part was that she might be.
The girls’ conversation drifted, easy and quick, like they were stepping around a puddle without naming it.
“Okay, but did anyone see what Quinn was wearing?” Nicole said, dragging out the word see like it was a felony.
Hayden snorted. “The sweater vest? Yeah. She looked like she got dressed in her grandpa’s closet, with the lights off.”
“I don’t get it,” Hannah said, biting into a chicken tender. “She’s rich. Like… pre-Smallara Stevens rich. She can afford not to look like a middle school librarian.”
Dayton shrugged, chewing. “Some people think ugly is a personality.”
Nicole giggled into her palm. “She probably thinks it’s aesthetic. Like, ‘I’m vintage. I compost. I’m better than you.’”
“Don’t knock composting,” Hayden said. “My sister does it and she still wears Nikes and has a boyfriend.”
Nicole’s eyes narrowed playfully. “Your sister is the one who moved to Orlando, right?”
“Yeah,” Hayden said. “And she has a Little, and she’s actually… nice about it.”
Ezra’s ears tuned in without permission.
“She has this setup in the kitchen,” Hayden continued, hands moving as she described it. “Like a little corner. It’s cute. It’s like… a breakfast nook but tiny.”
“Like a dollhouse?” Hannah asked.
“Exactly,” Hayden said. “Except it’s like… bowls and a beanbag and a tiny lamp. She says it makes him feel included but appropriately managed.”
Included.
Appropriately managed.
Ezra pressed his palm flat against the booster pad. The table felt enormous beneath him, smooth laminate with tiny scratches that looked like grooves on a highway.
They weren’t being unkind. That was the problem.
This was just how people talked now.
He wasn’t a man eating with them. He wasn’t a teacher among students.
He was a scenario.
Furniture that could speak.
Dayton wiped her fingers neatly on a napkin, then flicked her eyes toward Ezra. He sat silent beside her tray, back straight, legs tucked, eyes low.
He realized he’d stopped eating. Not because he was full. Because he’d noticed something that made his stomach drop.
No one watched him unless he moved.
No one remembered he needed to be watched. They trusted Dayton to handle it.
Which somehow made it worse.
“Okay,” Nicole said suddenly, grin tugging at her mouth. “But can we talk about the cup thing?”
Hannah laughed, cheeks full. “Oh my God, right? That tiny voice. ‘Could I just get a glass?’”
Hayden tilted her head, going solemn in a mock serious tone, “Pardon me, ma’am, I’ll take my sippy cup now, thank you.”
The girls burst into quiet laughter.
Ezra’s fingers curled tighter against his thighs.
Dayton smirked but didn’t fully join in. The humor in her settled in her underneath the surface. She nudged the water bowl a fraction closer to him. The rubber base squeaked softly against the tabletop.
The sound made Ezra’s skin crawl.
“It’s funny,” Dayton said, and the way she said it made it clear she was letting them have the joke because they needed it, “but you’re not used to any of this. No one taught you. They just… left you to figure it out.”
Her voice flattened into Guardian cadence again, calm and factual.
“Littles gulp,” she continued. “Gulping makes you choke. Bowls slow you down. And cups are expensive because they’re engineered for reduced flow, and they break, and they get lost. At school? There’s no point.”
She glanced at her friends. “And if I have to explain to my mom why you spilled water all over my tablet because you wanted to feel dignified, she will literally evaporate.”
Nicole nodded with mock solemnity. “My sister spilled once,” she said. “It got all over her tablet. My mom was patient but… scary.”
“I don’t even think my mom lets her touch a glass,” Hannah added. “She’s like, ‘If it’s not rubber or composite, it doesn’t come out.’”
Hayden grinned at Dayton. “And you love your systems.”
Dayton shrugged one shoulder. “They work.”
The conversation drifted again, back to weekend plans and who might be going to the Generitech Youth Showcase in Manhattan and whether it was going to be “actually cool” or “corporate cringe.”
Ezra sat beside the bowl like a footnote.
Not ignored. Not exactly. Just… peripheral. A thing that requires occasional management, like a phone with a low battery.
He looked down at his lap, hands folded tight.
There was no venom in their voices.
That, somehow, made it sharper.
Dayton took another sip of her tea, then glanced at him like she was checking a meter.
“You should drink more,” she said casually. “You haven’t had enough to keep your electrolytes balanced.”
Ezra swallowed. His voice came out small without amplification, and he hated that it sounded like obedience even when he meant it as cooperation.
“Y-yes,” he murmured.
Dayton’s mouth twitched, satisfied.
Hannah groaned at her tablet. “Ugh. AP Math quiz tomorrow.”
Nicole groaned back. “If Ms. Campbell makes it as hard as the last one, I’m actually going to cry.”
“Cry while passing,” Dayton said, brushing a crumb off her skirt. “It’s just ratios.”
“Oh, thank you, Calculus Queen,” Hayden said.
Dayton tilted her head. “Fractions are just baby decimals.”
Their laughter rose again, bright and easy, bouncing across the table like wind chimes caught in a gust.
Ezra leaned down to the water bowl and took another small lap.
One at a time.
Careful. Controlled.
Learning the rhythm.
Learning how to exist in the periphery of his own life.
A: He hated that Dayton understood his body better than he did.
I hate that too. I don’t understand the benefit of that basically being a secret to littles other than it being another way to keep them submissive and subservient, which sucks
B: Its weird how this is the 6th time i’ve seen someone go through grieving from losing their life and it still feels bad. Like Ezra, Jordan, and Charity aren’t too far off in their emoitions and behavior post-being claimed, but you’d think it wouldn’t bother me as much with how much time we spent with Jordan and how recently we had Charity’s pov, but it still sucks haha Ezra at least has the benefit that Dayton is doing things differently from Sara. With Jordan, it felt like Sara would go out of her way to make him feel the way Ezra currently does, not that that she did on purpose, but it was hard to not see it that way with how casual she was. With Ezra and Dayton though, most of the shame and humiliation and whatnot are coming from how casual her friend group is about it with Hannah being the only one that has some form of empathy for him. Meanwhile, like i said the other day, Dayton is being clinical and detatched, even if she’s getting satisfaction from it, she’s not showing it. it’s honestly the way I’d want a gaurdian to be if I were in ezra’s position. I wouldn’t have to deal with my guardian seeming to enjoy the process on top of the pain of losing everything, so i’d be able to process the latter a lot more.
(B) I’d probably be the same way as a little, just let me grieve the loss of my life, although I wouldn’t mind a guardian like Chrissy, or Hailey, or Oakley, who would treat me well.
A) nothing stopped him from learning the same things Dayton did. It wasn’t kept from him like it wasn’t kept from Jordan.
Choosing to be uneducated or u informed is a personal choice and the fault of the person who is making that choice if they regret it later.
B) more time has passed. People are used to seeing littles. They are accustomed to the laws and rules. So it’s not some shocking thing to them. It was probably more shocking seeing the sea come in as that’s not normal.
I kind of wanted to highlight and show how Daytons world doesn’t revolve around Ezra. Her little isn’t the North Star.
Not that she doesn’t care but it’s normalized. She knows what she wants to do. She has one now. So she is executing what she taught. It’s a different look at a similar situation.
A) Oh, I was under the impression that info wasn’t public knowledge. like i thought only guardians and like approved vets knew about little biology and whatnot. i wish i could find the chapter where Ellie said something to Jordan that potentially violated whatever it was they signed during guardian training. If i’m completely misremembering then that’s on me lol
B) That’s a good point, i get the time at when these occur goofed up so much lol part of me just would think there’d still be some kind of understanding that Ezra basically just lost everything he thought he had and that he’s having a hard time with it. Granted, they’re barely teenagers, so empathy for things like that isn’t necessarily in the forefront of their mind lol that’d come with maturity
Well there is unreleased info but nothing that Ezra has encountered.
They don’t hide eating pellets is healthy and people food is bad.
They don’t hide littles should drink from a
Bowl because it’s better for them.
But it’s also not front and center just like in real life.
When I got a dog I had to seek out what is good and bad food and why. I had to seek out why rawhide can be bad. It’s not kept from me by a conspiracy but it’s also not in my face.
Most is what Ezra is seeing is things like that.
ahh i gotcha now. yeah i thought a lot of it was meant to be hidden from anyone that wasn’t a guardian or approved by Generitech lol it’ll be a bit less empathetic about that going forward.
This is not a fun story to read, but somehow I can’t stop reading it. It’s a very dystopian world you’ve created here. The idea of ownership, forced indenture, for all people who are victims of this disease, is very difficult to read about.
it can be tough for sure, but that’s also what makes it compelling. I like the Kayla and Kelli story when we get them cause its a lot more heart warming, more empathetic to Kelli from Kayla, but at the same time if all the stories were like that, it’d be boring.
For the Dayton story specifically, though, this is going a bit better than i expected.
I like the ups and downs like life. As much as I love Kelli, I am waiting for Kayla to assert herself as the boss with Saras teachings so Kelli doesn’t get hurt thinking she can do stuff her little body isn’t safe to do.
I like their dynamic as it is tbh, it’s like the best pairing cause it feels more like team work and open communication than rules being enforced by Kayla. Not to say that Kelli makes wise choices in what she tries to do, like living in her own room alone or trying to eat food that doesn’t work for her body anymore, but i think Kayla cracking down would make things a lot more strained between them. Like it was already tough cause Kelli wasn’t really respecting Kayla as a guardian, but Kayla doing things like how sarah does would take some respect for Kelli and her autonomy away. Plus Kayla’s already put Kelli in Harms way with letting her ride on her skateboard without being secured and letting Tallisa take her for a bit when she isn’t a guardian. They’re the only two that seem to know there’s a real middle ground and are trying to find it, imo.
edit: I just worry about it trivializing the stuff that Kelli is dealing with as well as ruining Kelli’s personality if Kayla does things the way sarah had been with Jordan. Like anything Jordan brought up was basically dismissed or laughed at, but Kayla seems to take it a lot more serious with the way things are now and Kelli seems to have kept her spirit and attitude. I think doing it the other way would make her change her personality to fit the need instead of fitting the need to her personality, if that makes sense.
Well I needed and wanted a more realistic outlook.
The reality of a situation isn’t always as fun as the idea of it. Lots of people write about being small but few focus on the systems that would need to be in place.the reality of not everyone wants to pay for the systems it would take for small people to live normally.
People try to be nice but are also cruel and greedy at times. Good people can have a bad belief.
So it makes you question things. Like your neighbor maybe a great person but what if they don’t believe in god. Maybe that feels sacrilegious to you. This plays on that same idea where no one is truly bad in these stories.
They are people who have a belief set which is different from most readers which is what makes it uncomfortable.
As we are trained and presented media that is for the most part feel good media. The good guy wins, the bad guy loses. The victim is always morally just. The bad guy is always mean or cruel or has an underhanded or dark reason for doing what they do.
In this case for example. I presented dayton to you all as an immature child and who viewed Jordan like a child would. He’s small he’s toy like. He’s not like me. Not equal to me. So that’s how she treated him. She didn’t know any better and it wasn’t inherently wrong. Just not how you would treat a person but he’s not a person and littles aren’t presented as people.
So now years later we are seeing Dayton as a person who has motives and wants and is a realized person who you can see aspects of who she was but you also see more of her then the 1000 foot view.
So it’s uncomfortable because it’s normalized in this world. It’s not torture fiction. It’s not sexualizes in a fetish way. It’s presented as a down to earth these are people.
These are smaller people. These are the rules of the world as the world has had to adapt
To this reality.
People like to think the world would cater to the small. But people are starving now in real life.
People are homeless now. It’s cold, and cruel at times but it’s not something people think or dwell on. It’s not presented as the reality but the exception.
These stories more focus on the reality then the pretend. I do have more lighthearted stories as well in this world. But they feel better because of how the world is depicted and is. Niceness is a commodity just like
In real life. And it’s not always appreciated.
If it’s explored, I am most interested in seeing how Dayton and Ezra interact at Dayton’s home.
Dayton does go home with Ezra at the end of the day.
Dear god I already feel so bad for Ezra like why does Dayton make me dislike her more as each hour passes like damn and I’m trying to see the bright side I really am but the future feels so brim for Ezra
I’m sure we’ll get a chapter of them talking things out and trying to figure out if this can be a positive for both and not just one but I have a hard time believing that going to happen
I hope Sara sees this and offers some advice for Dayton or something because damn I just feel like it’s hopeless for most Littles in this world
Overall great work
I’m sure it will get better. Dayton with Ezra, imo, is light years better than sara with jordan when comparing their first few hours as guardian and little. Sara did a lot of stuff to like actively get a reaction out of Jordan and treated it like Jordan should have been grateful and already had accepted everything from the get go, while dayton isn’t really being like that. yeah she’s explaining stuff as if they’re facts, but it doesn’t really go further than that, it’s just a sanitized explanation with little emotion behind it. She could be treating it the way Evan had been, which was a bit condescending toward charity like she should already have accepted everything the moment she changed cause it’s the easiest thing in the world to do (its not lol)
For everyone who started singing Dayton’s praises, I want to remind her of her true motives (Chapter 13):
Dayton stared, her heart thudding. Her lips parted as her breath hitched, and slowly she turned her head toward the shelf again.
She could practically see him there. Not as he was now, buttoned-up, smug, defiant, but as he should be. Kneeling. Collared. Obedient. Pet.
Her little.
As far as I remember, Sarah never aspired to this.
the little sit kneeling basedb but not inherently bad or good in and of itself. collaring is the law. There is no way around that. Most people view littles as pets and not equal. Kind of a inbetween pet and person. Pets are generally thought to be obedient.
All of those things can be bad, can be good, can be neutral but based on the context of the world none of them are huge red flags.
The context with which they are done and used would be the tells rather then just the actions by themselves as in vaccuum it could go either way in my opinion.
Given daytons history i can see why someone would automatically lean negative with them. WHile i dont disagree i do think to automatically think she is bad becuase of just those things can be a stretch.
Sara views Jordan as pet person. He is her pet but he does have agency and she does still allow him independence and such. I do think she is generally good to him.
fair to point that out. part of me is thinking that Dayton getting called out on her reasoning by Nicole and Kinsley, cause they both seemed to know off the bat that control was more of the reason she wanted a little than anything else, probably gave her a wake up call of some kind that we haven’t seen, and maybe it’ll come up, like Ezra might just flat out ask why she wanted him out of all the littles she could get, and htis will get talked about. But you are right that it was her primary goal to start with, and on some level may still be.
that being said, she’s still doing things in a manner that is better than what sarah did. She wasn’t serious about it at all, maybe even too lax, and that was a lot worse to me because it really marginalized Jordans thoughts and feelings, and made him not matter. Like she forced him into school, forced him to sell his things, forced him to make a choice on his friends, and didn’t really give him a lot of say in things the first day or so, where as Dayton, while she hasn’t given Ezra a lot of say just yet, hasn’t been outright dismissive, or at least her tone hasn’t been. Being even toned in this leaves him with just the fact of the situation and not her opinion of it or of him. I think that is a better way to go about this cause it gives littles space to process without also having to deal with fact that their guardian basically thinks it’s ridiculous or unnecessary to feel and act a certain way. that’s just me though.
That’s her, that’s the real Dayton
I think Dayton is doing fine, Prof fluff needs to understand he is basically a little werewolf not a human and has to live different and stop crying.
Sara helping Dayton be a better guardian is the most “Blind (or at least nearsighted) leading the blind” suggestion I’ve ever heard, and it might actually happen, lol.
lol
I didnt think Dayton did anything that bad this chapter. There was some light teasing but that was more done by hayden who is just a joking person.
Was there a specifc moment you felt dayton overstepped?
Well last chapter started it but this chapter I don’t know maybe it’s the vibe of it at moment plus just the history of Dayton alone
But I’ll give you that she didn’t do anything wrong ( at least in an obvious way and sense) but she doesn’t give me confidence that Ezra will be happy in the long run and maybe that’s what has me so mix with Dayton and their relationship at the moment
Also didn’t know Dayton went bare foot today at school kinda wild lol
Lol, I’m guessing her shoes didn’t render, or she kicked them off to be more comfortable for lunch.
The later I notice girls like slip shoes on and off. So i was wanted to present Dayton in that light. As she is depicted with shoes in other scenes.
When the feet aren’t visible I do not always put shoes on as it’s extra data you won’t see.
she wear slip on’s so she can put her little down their to rub her feet after a hard day lol.
1) “Ezra J. Harris wanted to scream.” understandable
2) ‘Because if he looked “difficult,” Dayton would correct him in that calm, sweet voice that made everyone around her assume she was being patient and responsible.” She’s set it up in a way that won’t make her look like the bad guy to the uninformed, that’s for sure.
3) ‘He hated that Dayton understood his body better than he did. Not guessed. Not improvised. Understood. Like she had read him the way she read instruction manuals. Like she had studied him. Highlighted him. Annotated him” Ezra could have researched Little bodies any time he wanted, he knew he was vulnerable.
4) “And now Cassie stood in his classroom. Not observing. Teaching” opportunistic fucking vulture she is
5) “She’s already modifying your units, Ms. Whittaker says they’re a little dense. She’s breaking them down so people actually get it.” Translation: Ms Whitaker is dumbing down your lessons because she thinks students aren’t smart enough for them.
6) “Ezra clenched his jaw until it ached. He tried not to think about the bowl. Or the collar. Or the booster pad. Or the way every other student who glanced over didn’t look horrified, just… approving. Like: aw, she’s doing it right. That Little is well behaved” Blocking all that out is a fair response. Like most Littles we’ve seen he’s gonna need to get used to his guardian getting undue praise from others who don’t care to see his suffering.
7.1) “Because Dayton wasn’t cruel. Not the obvious kind. She didn’t yank his collar. She didn’t shout. She was worse. She believed she was helping. She believed she was doing the right thing.” Dayton didn’t just drink the Kool-Aid, she’s gorged on it. But ultimately the right thing was never her goal, she wanted to belittle and humiliate him, correct his behavior to suit
7.2) “And the terrifying part was that she might be” and now Ezra’s taken a sip
8) “Yeah, And she has a Little, and she’s actually… nice about it.” bold thing to say infront of two guardians, especially one like Dayton
9) “They weren’t being unkind. That was the problem. This was just how people talked now.” just because it’s currently normal talk doesn’t mean it isn’t unkind
10) “But can we talk about the cup thing?” “Oh my God, right? That tiny voice. ‘Could I just get a glass?’” “Pardon me, ma’am, I’ll take my sippy cup now, thank you.” This is the kind of bullying I was expecting from them, though I’d thought Dayton would be leading it.
11) “Dayton smirked but didn’t fully join in” Not what I thought she’d do; she must be working some angle.
12) “I don’t even think my mom lets her touch a glass,” Hannah added. “She’s like, ‘If it’s not rubber or composite, it doesn’t come out.’” Is there a Little at the Merriweather household?
13) “The conversation drifted again, back to weekend plans and who might be going to the Generitech Youth Showcase in Manhattan and whether it was going to be “actually cool” or “corporate cringe.” I’m leaning towards the latter.
1) it is a human response to strong stress and emotions.
2) Really to even the informed she wouldnt look bad. I mean she isnt doing anything that isn’t standard guardian stuff. Nothing is overtly wrong or mean. from our perspective it would be morally wrong but many things in this world are morally wrong but not viewed as acutally wrong. Plus his hands aren’t exactly clean either. So he has a bit of himself to blame on this. As if I was vulnerable to. disease I would learn legally how my life would change and what I needed to do to stay compliant. I probably I also would have setup for my own guardian. He did none of this. You kind of reap what you sow sometimes.
3) oh you were saying the same thign i was saying in point 2. He really could have. Its why I have trouble feeling sorry for him .As I dont feel sympathetic to people who put htemselves in bad situation by there own laziness as not having a better plan to a life changing disease is really laziness.
4) She is opportunistic but to also be fair in the situation she was in someone had to take it. She could decline hte job on moral grounds but moral grounds dont pay the bills or put food in your stomach or pay the rent. You would just be broke and probably without a job.
5) bingo well the majority of htem even if some can. She probably has too just optically though as well. As you cant exactly continue using the lesson plan of the person who was brought up on sedition. Thats kind of a bad look for her as well. She would need to change things to atleast be able to say she made change and reigned things in. As there woudl be ways to maintain the spirit of his lectures without going so far into political side like he was.
6) To the people who are giving the praise its not undue as they also believe what dayton and other guardians are doing is correct and appropriate. So its really just a alternative belief structure. As while I agree with you that system isnt in the right in how it treats littles. They would view me as misgudied and in wrong for thinking what they think is wrong.
7) Well its the same kool-aid every other government and the majority of the world also drinks. At some point its not kool aid its just water they drink.
7.2) I more took that to mean Ezra is realizing that while he may not agree with every decision there is a reason and logic for most of it. You can oppose the logic while accept that it works. As i dont think enough time has passed for him to buy in to the belief in a brainwashed way. 8) Well seh didnt mean it like a dig though.
9) There wasnt that much unkind about hayden talking about her sister or hannah her mother though. The teasing was more teenage teasing but that could be viewed as unkind but not unkind because he is small. Just more of a general unkind which is more equality then anything else.
10) I feel like thats just friends talking though. since he is right there it would probably be a kind of bullying in the strictest sense but its more just teasing which was pretty normal in my expierence. LIke if that was said about someone that woudlnt even be a highlight or a notable moment.
11) immediately the lethal radar goes off this cant just be nice it must be something bad or she wants something. I love it.
12) her mother has a little hannah does not .
13) probably most corporate is cringe.
2) His hands aren’t clean I agree, but it is also obvious that he had made plans for what woukd happen to him post infection, and the district deceaved him into thinking he’d be legally safe. He could have xhecked the laws himself, but he chose to put his trust in people he’d worked with for years, which I can’t fully fault him for.
3) doing his own research woukd have helped a ton.
4) I’m not faulting her too hard, we know she envied him, and now she’s taken what she envied, it was a good opportunity, earned by putting up with Ezra in his situation
5) Changing them makes legal sense, dumbing them down is the issue.
6) I do agree that praise is something that is a personal choice for who and what deserves it. When I said undue praise I meant people praising an outward facade of Dayton’s Guardianship, which wouldn’t match the real deal.
7.1) this is a very popular Kool-Aid I agree, it’s weirder not to drink it.
7.2) I don’t think he’s brainwashed today, but he’s definitely willing to re-evaluate some things.
8) I know, but boy did it sound like she was implying Dayton and Nicole weren’t nice to their Littles.
10) it’s bullying because he’s not in on the joke, they’re making fun of him, something he did, at his expense, while he’s right there. If he able to defend himself, I’m sure he woukd here, but there’s no way Dayton would allow that. (I do get that he was worse to them, but still, bullying is bullying)
11) Daytons the kind of girl to make false accusations about vulnerable men. That’s who she is, it’s what she does. So, no, I don’t trust her to “just be nice”.
12) interesting, this is the first instance of a household with both adult and child biggles, where the Little’s guardian is a parent and not a child.
12) Actually, scratch that, it occurs to me that Tamara’s mother is probably her father’s Guardian, not Tamara herself.
I would think little training would teach them to cuddle with their owners like cat and dogs do to Aleve stress because their biology seems so close. It would help Prof puff a lot so he doesn’t have to think so much about being focused on.
little training wouldn’t cover cuddling. Just like any pet some may enjoy cuddling or closeness more then others.
I was just thinking it would make the guardian try a few times to see if the new pet likes it. I would think most of the littles should want to be on there guardians skin just as a biological animal thing since they do seem to be selective breed through evolution to be a parasite to humans like some small fish are to much bigger fish.
We haven’t seen Dayton give him the infamous “back rub” yet. Ezra will be conflicted about that when it happens 😇
We just gonna ignore the banjo shirt. I need that shirt.
I really like that shirt as well. Hayden has good style.
What pisses me off about this world is littles get fuck all time to grieve there loss! There life is gone! Like gone gone! Possessions gone! Job gone! Friends gone! And in some cases family abandoned them! And then what’s worse! There given to teenagers who have fuck all life experience who don’t know what loss is like and then tell their little! “I’m sorry you’re a little now but hey you got to sip from a bowl” the lack of empathy in this smallara world is just downright cruel! Why? Because people don’t care!
That is definitely unfair, a cruelty no Little deserves their fate.
Another aspect I don’t like that’s kind of connected to what you say, is how guardians typically expect gratitude from their Littles, like they assume haveing them as a guardian is all that any Little could possibly want for themselves. The do the bare minimum and think their Littles should treat then like they’ve gone above and beyond.
To both you and Dlege lol
yeah, it’s tough for sure, especially if you’re a highly empathetic person. There is a few guardians so far that kind of are. I mean Kayla basically cried herself to sleep because she had to put a collar on Kelli lol we just don’t see it enough. it’s pretty much just her, chrissy, and Hailey that were like that from the jump. Maybe Kenzie with Greg too, but we don’t see it enough cause she’s got a ton on her plate to deal with, so i give her a pass in some regards.
I do find it funny that you listed off half the main characters as empathetic
lol to me, they’re the ones in the main stories that seem to just outright care that their littles have lost something, or at the very least are willing to acknowledge it.
i should have included Daniealla, Carter, steph, stephs mom, and Tallisa too. idk why but i get the feeling Carters a pretty good dude and probably spent a lot of time figuring things out with his little vs forcing a ruleset or something. he’s just got a vibe to him
I can understand that. I just thought it was funny as you were mentioning that alot of the characters arent empathetic and then listed half hte characters as emphatetic. It just made me chuckle.
but i do understand your point.
I certainly would not want to become a Little in this universe, but I accept the premise for the sake of the story. The conflict and unfairness (from my perspective) is what keeps me reading, AND I love to complain (bitch) about the situations here in the comments section. 😝
Some of Lethal’s commentaries are priceless ❤️
I also enjoy many of the other comments and viewpoints I find here.
Case in point regarding the conflict enjoyment is the fact that Madison’s World is my favorite story line of this universe (so far). Seeing the negative world (from my POV) that Cindy envisioned and promoted and then having her dropped into it from a Little’s POV has been very entertaining.
I enjoy harmonious stories as well, but in this universe, they are few and far between.
There are definitely elements played up for the sake story and interest.
I agree lethal has some priceless comments.