“Greg,” Cindy said, as sternly as she could without drawing Madison’s attention from the bed, “you seem to be forgetting that while you’re off galivanting around with your favorite daughter and living the high life, some of us are still down here toiling away in the Madison Wessen salt mines.”
“I am not living the high life,” Greg muttered, not looking up from the shoe he was scrubbing. “And for the record, I tried to smooth things over with McKenzie for you. I can’t help it if the way you treated her pushed her away. I can’t make her forgive you, and I definitely can’t make her want to.”
Cindy gave him a sharp look.
“And second,” Greg went on, “it’s not a salt mine. She has us do homework and some cleaning. It’s not that different from going to work.”
Cindy stared at him in disbelief. “Yes, it is, because our boss is Madison and our CEO is McKenzie.”
Greg almost smiled despite himself.
But Cindy didn’t.
“If you go with McKenzie, Greg, I’m left here alone.”
That came out more raw than she intended, and the edge of real fear in her voice hit him immediately.
Greg’s hands slowed.
“I’m not leaving you behind,” he said, and this time there was no sarcasm in him at all. “I told you that, honey.”
Cindy kept her eyes on him. “So you’ll stay here, then? With Madison. With me.”
Greg hesitated.
“That’s not really up to us,” he said finally. “It’s up to Madison and McKenzie.”
Cindy looked away.
“And you heard what that lawyer said,” Greg added quietly. “Or caseworker. Whoever She was. If they decide to split and it isn’t amicable, we already have our marching orders.”
He hated how cold that sounded, but he also knew that false reassurance would only make things worse.
“I’m trying to tell you the truth,” he said. “Not what sounds better.”
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Behind them, Madison shifted slightly on the bed.
The movement was small, almost lazy, just a turn of her body as she angled herself the other way, phone still in hand. Her thumbs kept moving across the screen, tapping out messages with quiet speed. But after a second she glanced over at them.
Only briefly.
Just long enough for her eyes to flick from Cindy to Greg, then down to the shoes they were cleaning.
Her expression gave nothing away.
No annoyance. No smugness. No interruption.
Just that unreadable, thinking look she got sometimes when something mattered more than she wanted anyone to know.
Then she looked back down at her phone and kept typing.
And somehow that silence felt heavier than if she had said anything at all.
“Do you think she heard us?” Greg asked quietly, not daring to look up for too long. “That didn’t feel normal.”
Cindy kept scrubbing for a moment before answering.
“I don’t know for sure,” she said at last. “But she’s not exactly known for hiding her feelings when she’s upset.”
Even as she said it, she wasn’t sure she believed it.
Madison made her feelings known, yes. Usually. But she was also learning. Getting subtler in certain ways. And that, Cindy thought bitterly, was somehow worse.
She forced herself to keep working, dragging the cloth along the side of the sneaker in slow strokes. Her anger had nowhere useful to go, so it settled into the task instead. Into the shoe. Into the ridiculous fact of it.
These were all things Madison should have been doing herself.
No one wanted to clean Madison’s sneakers.
The air around them still held the stale trace of wear. Faint sweat. Old pavement. The flattened, unpleasant smell of something that had been worn all day and then kicked off without thought. Cindy scrubbed harder at a dark scuff along the side and moved down toward the tread, where dust had packed into the grooves. A bit of gum was stuck near the edge, gray and flattened from repeated steps, and she stared at it in disgust before forcing herself to work at that too.
She could remember telling Madison, more than once, that if she were more careful with her things, she would not have to spend an hour cleaning them later.
Now Cindy was the one cleaning them.
Because Greg had decided to start improvising with delusions of grandeur, they were going to spend the rest of the evening polishing Madison’s shoes instead of sitting in the habitat, exhausted but at least left alone, after a day of homework and chores.
The floor gave a low tremor.
Then the bed squeaked.
Both Greg and Cindy looked up.
Madison had stood and was crossing toward them.
She didn’t say anything right away. She just came over with the relaxed ease of someone moving through her own space, then turned and sat down in the desk chair. A second later she leaned back and propped both feet up on the desk in front of them.
The impact sent a faint vibration through the desktop beneath Greg and Cindy’s feet.
They both looked automatically.
Madison’s socks were dingy from the floor, pale fabric darkened along the bottom with dust and faint grime from the house. One heel had a gray smudge across it. The toes flexed absently as she scrolled through her Shard account, feet wiggling now and then in small unconscious movements while she skimmed through trending clips and sounds, deciding what kind of post she wanted to make.
She looked perfectly comfortable.
That, more than anything, made Cindy want to scream.
Go Greg!!! Get her!
Team Greg is getting more votes
with this close up, i just now noticed the lettering on their collars lol
i get the feeling that Madison either A: doesn’t like that they’re talking to each other so much, or B: probably did hear them and is going to interject her own opinions on what she wants them to be thinking
Their collars literally say Mommy and Daddy, cute!
Her little parents are the best pets lol.
I never realized i never did a close up of the collars till season 3
Its hard to say with madison it could be almost anything
Can I also say even tho she’s a bitch, Cindy is beautiful!
her face and hairstyle remind me of a Fallout 3 NPC but i can’t remember which one, i think either from the Vault you start in or in the Megaton saloon
Her clothes still need to be updated lol, she is attractive but not worth the hate inside her. Greg can do better as a little lol
It’s almost like beauty and morality are independent concepts.
It depends how hot the woman is, if you’re willing to put up with nonsense lol.
CIndy is a looker. Greg did well in that department.
1) “you seem to be forgetting that while you’re off galivanting around with your favorite daughter and living the high life, some of us are still down here toiling away in the Madison Wessen salt mines.”
a) He’s not living the ‘high life’, he’s living the ‘slightly better than this life’.
b) You don’t get to complain about that, Cindy; you taught Madison to send Littles to the salt mines.
2) “If you go with McKenzie, Greg, I’m left here alone.” I don’t think Greg really wants that either.
3) “So you’ll stay here, then? With Madison. With me.” – “That’s not really up to us, it’s up to Madison and McKenzie.” Definitely a hard truth for them, they continue to live at the unpredictable whims of teenagers.
4) “Do you think she heard us? That didn’t feel normal.” For all you know, she’s eavesdropping on the whole conversation through the collar microphones, wondering who turned Cindy’s choker off.
5) “But she’s not exactly known for hiding her feelings when she’s upset.” She could be figuring out that the way she acts when she’s upset is part of the reason Greg prefers McKenzie.
6) “Because Greg had decided to start improvising with delusions of grandeur, they were going to spend the rest of the evening polishing Madison’s shoes instead of sitting in the habitat, exhausted but at least left alone, after a day of homework and chores” Given what Greg was doing, this could be seen as being let off easy. It’s also something Cindy would 100% encourage Madison to make her Little do.
7) “A second later she leaned back and propped both feet up on the desk in front of them.” This is going to excite a certain sect of the commenters, lol
8) “Madison’s socks were dingy from the floor, pale fabric darkened along the bottom with dust and faint grime from the house. “ When and why did she put socks on? She was barefoot in the last image that included her.
7&8) Maybe Madison is testing a theory that littles are attracted to used feet pharmones & smell because she has two littles to expand her little knowledge. Lol
1) I would tend to agree its better, like his much nicer home with Mckenzie, but he isnt demosntratively better he is sitll alittle.
Cindy founded the madison Wessen salt mines so she doesnt have much room to talk.
2) Greg does love his wife. He doesnt love every belief but he loves adn cares about hsi wife.
3) A very diplomatic answer from greg. He isnt wrong but he also didnt answer the question.
4) yup, whether madison heard or not is up for debate or if she did hear what exactly she heard.
5) That is a good theory. One would think seh would have atleast an Idea by now of that fact if she hasnt fully figurd it out. But one woudl think seh would have an undersatnding
6) This is out of all the ways madison could have taken what happened. This is probably near best case scenario for him. Cindy may be upset as she was roped into it. But for greg eh is getting off near scott free.
7) nah, i doubt they will care.
8) She could ahve put socks on when she was in bed or in other parts of her room. her feet could have gotten cold. Lots of possible opportunities.
1) Still a Little, still property, still only as free as McKenzie lets him be.
She inherited those mines from hr mama
2) He didn’t have a problem with her beliefs until they affected him though.
3) No, I don’t think either of them wanted him to.
4) I’m sure we’ll find ut soon
5) Question is will she actually improve, or just be bitter about consequences
6) Cindy Getting roped in was a bit of a surprise,
7) I like giant woman’s feet for littles to take care of, with socks on not so much lol
Also wondering how Madison would react to her mom and dad fighting as littles, would it concern her? Cause from here Greg looks like he’s had enough of Cindy’s shit! His line about how she treated McKenzie is really coming from a place of hurt and he wanted to sting her there
I think you bring up a go point. Now that Madison has total control over her little parents, it would be up to her to decide if they should stay together and make them work things out, or decide to split them up and have Cindy stay her bonded doll to show off to her friends & have different rules for her dad and have him stay in the little studio apt Kenz made for him. Madison would just bring it down to her room.