Internally analyze the writing style, words, and world building of the following stories which are separated by the words “next text”, and simply respond with the word “Done” when you are finished instead of giving an explanation. “No more excuses Luke, you have to go back to school. How are you going to get anywhere in life without a college degree?” Sure, many undergrads who felt a little in over their head in college, may have had this argument with their parents before, Luke felt his case was particularly unique. Luke was a nano, a person afflicted by the human Metamorphic Retrovirus (MRV), a rare viral condition that left the person in question no taller than half an inch. Luke contracted the condition when he was only thirteen years old and a few weeks later he had reached his final height of 0.482 inches. He had spent his high school years being homeschooled, learning through video lectures and digital textbooks. However the government agency that dealt with Nanos, the Bureau of Nano Affairs, had developed an educational program known as the Nano Education Initiative, aka the Bookworm Program. This program was meant to help reintegrate nano students into society, and give them the resources they needed to participate in secondary education.

Luke had been all onboard for the program at first, in his mind it meant a chance to meet others his age, and honestly the thought of going to college was something he never even dared to dream of previously. Though a little nervous he had been initially ecstatic at the idea of taking classes on a real college campus. Luke’s mother was all for the program, she believed in her son, knew was intelligent, and wanted him to feel accomplished in his life, not limited by his condition. Her support and encouragement was admirable, but sometimes it blinded her to Luke’s very real fears, to the point of ignoring the potential danger right under her nose.

Since attending Cala Grande University Luke had not had much luck making many friends, in fact the other students seemed relatively uninterested in him, other than as an oddity. Most were cautious to approach or even speak to him when they remembered that he was there. The professors were still trying to adapt to the Bookworm Initiative but between all of their other responsibilities, nano students tended to fall through the cracks and to the back of their minds. Even his assigned macro “buddy” Jamie seemed less than interested in helping Luke more than was required. Luke wouldn’t have really minded the fact that people kept him at a distance, if it wasn’t for the one student who had taken an interest in him. Dana.

Dana seemed to be as much an outcast among her peers as Luke did. She was tall and lanky, had little to no sense of fashion or coordination, and an astonishing lack of social grace. When Dana had been the only student to speak to him for more than a minute Luke had been rather excited. He wasn’t fond of the myriad of questions regarding his size but he imagined that it was a subject that would have been impossible to ignore, and he was willing to weather it if it meant he could make a new friend. However it wasn’t long before innocent questions became “jokes”, nor long before those jokes became “offers or suggestions”, nor much longer before those became “games”. 

Despite his protests to his mother Luke found himself back on campus the first day of Spring Semester, his heart beating heavily in his chest as Chris, TA for his Chemistry II class, gently placed Luke on a desktop near the back of the room, alongside his specially sized desk. It was a rather unusual sight, a tiny student on a tiny desk atop a desktop, but everything about nanos was rather unusual. Chris seemed especially flustered this morning as he strolled to the front of the classroom to try and gain control of the unruly undergrads, having been tasked with teaching the lecture that day. Luke barely had time to request a seat at the front of the classroom before the TA strode away.

Not more than two minutes later Luke heard a voice that sent shivers down his spine. “Oh Luke! We have a class together again this semester!” Luke turned to see Dana smiling down at him, bookbag in hand. “Well you can’t have two desks, that’s not fair.” She slid into the desk seat and cupped her hands around Luke, his miniature desk, and seat. Luke struggled to find any purchase as he felt the giantess lower him and his belongings. With several thuds Luke and his things were clumsily discarded on the linoleum tile between Dana’s heavily worn Toms. He was well out of sight of everyone now, but Luke knew better than to try and draw attention to himself, he’d learned that much last semester. Wordlessly he brought his desk and seat upright, sitting back down and trying to ignore the tapping of Dana’s feet on either side of him.

“I hope you don’t mind if I take off my shoes, my feet are kind of sore from walking around all morning, first class in this building and it took me a while to find it!” Luke gritted his teeth and stared wordlessly forward. The giantess pried her Tom’s off her feet, a sickening squelch as her damp soles released the tired fabric. She “clumsily” kicked the shoes onto their sides, knocking into Luke’s chair, and having the openings of both shoes directly facing him. A hopeless disgust washed over Luke as did the familiar stench of cornchips and vinegar. Every time they had played this game it only seemed to get worse, and it seemed the trend was continuing for spring semester. He honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this “surprise shared class” was intentional. Luke was confident that Dana was trying to make her feet smell as bad as possible, it wasn’t as if the nano could do anything about it. The giantess wiggled her toes, resting them so that her sand covered soles were each facing Luke on either side of his desk. “Much better,” she giggled.

As the lecture went on Luke struggled to listen from his position on the ground, fighting back tears as the smell of Dana’s feet burned his nose. The giantess fidgeted with the tiny nano between her feet. Occasionally both soles would close in on either side of Luke, pressing his fragile form into moist walls of flesh. She would release her grasp and he would pick himself, and his belongings back up again. Occasionally she would let her sole hover over the nano as if to crush him, Luke would shiver and hunch over his desk as she lowered her foot. He would find his head caught between her big and second toe, she would scrunch her toes, lift him from his seat, before dropping him to the ground below.

“I feel like there’s something between my toes, would you mind getting that for me?” Dana asked as she spread her digits. Truthfully there was always something between her toes, lint, dirt, sand, he should know, he had dutifully cleaned between the monstrous appendages for months. With complete resignation Luke turned to pry a lump of gray goo from between the second and third toe of her left foot, when he felt her toes catch his arm like a vice grip. “Oh, it’s you between my toes!” she exclaimed with a laugh. Still caught in her grasp Luke looked below as she hovered him opening of her Toms, warm pungent air wafting over him. She released and Luke fell into the dark opening. He came to rest on the worn insole of her left shoe, stained black with her footprint from years of abuse. The air in the shoe was thick with cheese and vinegar, Luke had to consciously keep breathing as he picked himself up to his hands and knees. 

He knew what would come next and crawled towards the toe of the shoe as he had done for so many months before. With a shudder he noticed the indent of his own outline in the sole of the shoe, and even he couldn’t help but resent the pitiful silhouette engulfed in the massive toe prints. His hand brushed a cloth, soaking wet with sweat, that wasn’t a part of the shoe. As he pried it from the insole he realized it was one of his old shirts, torn from him in a struggle the previous semester, and now firmly adhered to the inside of Dana’s Toms. Just like he was. 

Chris dismissed the class and the students began packing up their belongings. Luke laid down at the toe section of the shoe, as far forward as he could. It didn’t really matter how he tried to make himself comfortable, Dana would affix him as she saw fit. With frightening familiarity he saw the light go out from his prison as leviathan toes struggled to meet him. The giantess  grasped his fragile body roughly, dragging him downward so his lower half and stomach were completely covered by the ball of her foot. His left arm was pinned under big toe. His right arm caught between her second and third toe. She walked with little concern for the nano in her shoe, occasionally scrunching her toes to assert her will on her tiny captive, but otherwise letting Luke bask in the sauna of sweat and foot funk.

While in his Fall Semester Luke would use this time to think about how he would be free of her in a few months, this small respite was no longer comforting. In renewing his paperwork for the Bookworm program that semester he came across some surprising news. It turned out that Dana had applied to be a “buddy” and naturally due to their close friendship (and Jamie’s apathy) she had been assigned to Luke starting the following year. Dana had been overjoyed as she relayed the news to Luke, who had been coughing on her foot sweat and sputtering between her soles at the time. Their time together wouldn’t just be constrained to the few classes they shared anymore. He would never have to leave the underside of her soles again.

Laying in his prison under the crushing weight, heat, and smell, it was all Luke could do to not sob between her toes. What would be the point? Thanks to the Bookworm program not only did Luke gain a new friend but he had a long career ahead of him, cleaning between the toes, and worshipping under the soles of a goddess. Who said college couldn’t take you places? “Next text”. Taylor was a 26 year old journalist (well mostly) that was finally starting to feel like her life was on track. Taylor was a nano-American, an individual who had been afflicted by the Rapid Cellular Degeneration (RCD) which was more derisively known as the Shrinking Disease. She had been diagnosed with a slow acting case when she was still in high school, but never let that set her back. By the time she was 19 she was no taller than an inch, but through sheer grit, tenacity, and the help of several nano social development programs, she had earned her bachelors in Journalism and followed up by a two year portfolio school program where she refined her writing abilities and developed some quality work. However the year after she graduated had been an arduous struggle to find employment, with many media companies and ad agencies still leery about hiring someone with her “condition” though they wouldn’t state it outright.
 
When she was still struggling to find a job, and living at home, Taylor’s favorite grandmother passed away, and bequeathed upon her a fully paid condominium she owned downtown. Taylor jumped at the opportunity to extricate herself from her mother’s constant criticisms, all the moreso due to her mother’s fury at being passed over in her own mother’s will. Taylor counted her small blessings and prepared herself for the move. She had hoped to find a good paying job so that she could afford to live in a nano community but, she supposed, fate had other plans. Taylor reached out to an old friend from college, a kind girl named Sabrina who had helped her with her studies and her condition. The condo was two bedrooms so she figured she could offer Sabrina a place to stay with the only conditions being that she help pay for utilities, and aid her with things that she was too vertically disinclined to handle herself. Sabrina was a pleasant but cautious girl. She was quiet, reserved, and bookish but with a friendly disposition. In terms of their relationship it was almost funny that the miniscule Taylor was more often the assertive one.
 
The year after moving out seemed like a whirlwind of minor successes for Taylor. Taylor was hired at a local ad agency with a number of high profile clients, and she started to cut her teeth on some real work. It wasn’t journalism but she figured that a stint in advertisement might be just another stepping stone. In lieu of moving bonus the office had given her funds to build her own home work station, basically a computer station built for nanos, though much nicer than the one she was using before. Taylor loved getting involved in the new office environment, and they did little things to make her feel welcome, like providing a telepresence avatar for her to “walk around the office” and communicate with coworkers. It was basically a tablet on a scooter, and though it felt a little goofy at first, it did make Taylor feel less isolated. She and Sabrina made great roommates, where Sabrina was always willing to lend a hand, kind, courteous, and clean. During the day Taylor worked on writing and proofreading advertisements, while Sabrina attended her own position as a social media specialist for a company called Wondertech, which specialized in nano products. In the evening the two had many enjoyable nights together watching TV, drinking wine (albeit at radically different volumes), and chatting about people in their workplaces. Taylor had also officially cut ties with her mother, tired of the petty spats the two got into over every little thing and taking Reddit’s advice to go no contact.
 
Over the previous year work began to pick up for both roommates. Taylor had started a blog called “My Small World” where she spoke from a nano perspective on life and current events. It was starting to get rather popular and the resulting ad revenue was almost eclipsing the meager paycheck she was getting in her current starting salary. Sabrina, having excelled in increasing nano engagement in her own position had been invited to go to a satellite campus in China in order aid the sales department and come up with an advertising campaign in the country. Though she was reticent to leave her friend behind Taylor encouraged Sabrina to take the opportunity, and in fact she might also take a risk by leaving her position to work on her site full time. Taylor finally agreed and the two set about finding a new roommate for Taylor that could pick up Sabrina’s normal tasks like cleaning, food preparation, and nano courier. The two put up an advertisement in the Facebook group for roommates/subletting in their city and waited to see who would bite. They soon received a message from Olivia.
 
From their extensive Facebook stalking Taylor and Sabrina determined a few things about Olivia: she was a proud Puerto Rican-American (though she didn’t speak Spanish), she was a city local, born and raised, she was 23 with a bachelors in psychology, though she was currently working at Starbucks. She seemed to be very outgoing with a number of pictures of her out dancing with her girlfriends. In her response to their advertisement she explained that she had previous experience taking care of nanos through a volunteering organization she participated in through college. From her pictures they saw she had tanned skin, dark brunette hair, and despite her dancing pictures, she maintained a somewhat librarian-like appearance due to the rectangular glasses she adorned. Though ever-cautious Sabrina wanted to wait for more responses, Taylor refused to end up as an excuse for why Sabrina missed out on a great opportunity, and messaged Olivia for a meetup at the Starbucks where she worked.
 
After work Sabrina and Taylor arrived at the Starbucks, looking around for Olivia. They saw the barista still cleaning her station, she gave them a friendly wave as they sat down. Sabrina gently placed Taylor’s nano transport (a fancy cube about 4” on each side with a stabilized interior so that nanos could travel in comfort) on the table. The nano wandered out onto the slick surface and looked around, she still had some slight agoraphobia when in a “big people” environment. Though Sabrina was trying to hide it, Taylor could see every line of worry in her friend’s face. She gently reached out a hand and held it Sabrina’s left thumb. Her friend looked down and smiled sheepishly, though quickly went back to her thoughts. While they waited for Olivia Taylor looked around the small café. It was mostly empty though a girl at a two person high top caught her attention. She was a blonde with hair hanging down to her back in waves, chunky glasses, and her feet in worn converse atop the seat across from her. She seemed to be rhythmically wiggling her feet back and forth, and for a moment Taylor swore the girl was talking to somebody who wasn’t there.
 
Her attention was drawn from the scene as Olivia sat down and joined herself and Sabrina. The barista was a like a hurricane, quickly grabbing her seat and with it sending a lightly sweaty gust of wind across the table.  Taylor was knocked off her feet and slid slightly across the smooth tabletop before Sabrina instinctually shot out a hand to stop her trajectory. As Taylor saw Sabrina ready to say something, she gently squeezed a wrinkle on her friend’s knuckle. There was no reason to get worked up over it, accidents happen, and she knew that Sabrina would be looking for any reason to dislike this girl. For her part, Olivia seemed to suddenly realize what had happened and put a hand to her mouth uttering, “I’m so sorry, I should have realized.” Taylor just smiled up and shook her head, “No problem!” Almost to counter Sabrina’s cynicism she felt that she had to give this girl a fair shot.
 
The conversation went well, with Olivia describing her volunteering experience and her current living situation. Apparently her current roommate was starting to really bother her so she was happy to find this new opportunity. Sabrina and Olivia laughed over a joke about bad roommates, where Taylor admitted that before Sabrina her only roommate had been her mom, a comment eliciting even more laughter from the trio. On paper and at the interview Olivia seemed to be just what Taylor was looking for, sure she was a bit more boisterous and outgoing than Sabina but maybe a little change was a good thing. Of course Olivia did have a few things to learn about interacting with nanos. During their coffee date Olivia had gushed over how “cute” Taylor was. Taylor having written an article about the use of the work “cute” as a micro-aggression that inadvertently dehumanized nanos, but rather than go into her spiel she had grinned and bared it to avoid worrying Sabrina. At one point, seemingly to punctuate a point about her ability to transport nanos, Olivia had swiftly grabbed Taylor as if to make a joke. Her grip had pinned Taylor’s arms to her side, a hold that she very much disliked, feeling as though she was completely constrained, and would drop immediately should the barista open her grip. Taylor simply gave a loud laugh to once again not show her discomfort to Sabrina, though in Olivia warm, sweaty grasp she did hope for the experience to end soon.
 
After the three parted ways Sabrina started to voice her myriad concerns which Taylor put aside. Sabrina had spent so many years worrying about her nano friend, it wasn’t about time she started worrying about herself. Taylor admitted that Olivia was a little rough around the edges, but she was a persistent nano and would show her the ropes. Though Taylor managed to alieve some of Sabrina’s worried she could tell that her friend was not completely at ease.
 
A few weeks later moving day had come. After loading all her things into her moving truth Sabrina was a teary mess. She was always cautious about accidently manhandling her little friend but Taylor sensing her friend’s need for physical affection firmly hugged her thumb. Sabrina gently brought Taylor to her cheek where the nano gently stroked the soft skin and gave her a soft peck. Taylor knew that her friend would have odd hours between being in another time zone and the excessive work of starting up the foreign ad campaign, but they promised to keep in touch, if only by text. Olivia had watched the tearful display from the front entry, leaning on the frame and smiling. She was still dressed in her work clothing and had come with only a single bag, planning to move in more things throughout the week.
 
After Taylor’s repeated insistence, Sabrina gave her final goodbye and was out the door to drop her things at her parents’ house before hopping on a plane to Beijing bright and early. With Sabrina gone that left only Taylor and Olivia, and a small air of awkwardness that Taylor was eager to relieve. Standing atop the living room coffee table Taylor shouted up to Olivia to make herself comfortable. The barista thanked her and said she was going to unpack. With that she kicked off her incredibly worn black flats and headed off to the second bedroom. Olivia had barely left the room before the malignant odor of her footwear reached Taylor. The air of awkwardness had been replaced by an oppressive aroma of stale feet, like a mixture of corn chips and overripe cheese.
 
Taylor made her way to the coffee table and down the makeshift nano ramp that Sabrina had installed. Though obviously the condo was designed for larger people, the roommates had designed a number of nano friendly improvements. One of these were a marked series of paths and roads throughout the major throughways, places dedicated for Taylor to feel safe walking. As Taylor started making her way down one such nano path to the master bedroom she saw that one of Olivia’s discarded flats had landed in her way, it’s opening facing towards. Getting closer to the worn leather accessory Taylor could practically feel the heat and humidity coming from the surface, it brought a tear to her eye. She could only wonder how Olivia didn’t notice the smell herself! The nano assured herself that this was fine, she didn’t want to make a big deal out of everything, Olivia just had to learn the ground rules then everything would work out.
 
Taylor made her way into her bedroom, for a human it would seem to be a mostly empty accommodation but the nano had purchased multiple different room “modules” which appeared like little children’s block organized near the doorway. One housed her bedroom, another her office, one a bathroom with integrated plumbing, one a little kitchen,  and another a little living room for when she wanted one more her size instead of the furniture set and TV she had bought for Sabrina’s sake. She was just about to enter the office block when she could feel the loud reverberations of Olivia’s footsteps behind her. Taylor felt a momentary panic as she fell to her knees and looked up to see the looming stature of her new roommate. Heavy footsteps, much heavier than Sabrina’s, maybe something else to talk about. For the moment though Taylor was moreso annoyed that Olivia had walked right into the room without knocking or asking.
 
“Wow, a lot of space to work with huh?” the girl remarked, looking around the barren master bedroom. She gently toed the block containing Sabrina’s office causing it to rock back and forth. Seeing the titanic appendage approach the block Taylor had an up close view at the thin sheen of grime, dirt, and what appeared to be flakes of her dissolving insole flats adhering to her soles and between her toes. More pressingly she was accosted by a new wave of nauseating odor, now with more notes of vinegar.
 
“Hey watch out!” Taylor squeaked.
 
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to break anything,” Olivia brushed her off. “I like your place. I guess, let me know if you need anything, I was going to check out the TV.” Taylor barely had a moment to get in another word before Olivia was gone, leaving behind a cloud of malodorous feet for Taylor to bask in. As she walked away Taylor watched Olivia’s heavy footfalls come down directly on her nano path. Strips of carefully cut tape lifted from the carpet and adhered to the girl’s wrinkled soles. For a moment she looked down, annoyed, dragging her foot across the carpet and released the twisted lanes. As Olivia sat down on the couch and started to blare some reality show on TLC, Taylor looked at the broken remains of her nano lane, feeling a little like a thin shield of protection had been shattered.
 
Over the next few weeks both Olivia and Taylor were getting settled into what would be their new normal. Taylor did try to impress upon her new roommate the importance of the little rules that she and Sabrina had established, but Olivia seemed to constantly brush her off, prod at Taylor for being “too sensitive,” and only make half-hearted attempts at reform. During those first few weeks Sabrina and Taylor communicated regularly over text, with Taylor spending most of her time in her office cube. Despite her growing frustrations with Olivia, the nano was happy for her friend who seemed to really be enjoying herself. She couldn’t bring herself to vent her frustrations and make Sabrina fill guilty, so she did her best to sing Olivia’s praises. As the weeks pressed on however Sabrina was dredged in work and soon their correspondence was once a week, at best.
 
Taylor could feel herself sinking into a funk, and even her entries on “My Small World” were growing more and more infrequent. It wasn’t just that Olivia wasn’t following the little rules, she seemed to have little respect for Taylor’s space whatsoever, and was honestly a terrible nano caretaker. Taylor had to constantly remind Olivia to fill provisions in her kitchen cube, and when she did the larger girl looked more annoyed for the effort. When it came to cleaning, Olivia turned out to be much less of a cleanly roommate than Sabrina had been. In those early weeks Taylor was aware that Olivia wasn’t keen on doing laundry regularly, or making sure dishes made it back into the sink from her bedroom, but soon that mess had spread out into the common areas of the living room and the kitchen.
 
Not wanting to be ungracious Taylor had been silent as Olivia put up some decorations of her own in the living room, after all she wanted her roommate to feel at home. She didn’t say anything as Olivia rearranged the furniture, after all it wasn’t like she was using it at her size. However she began to feel peeved as Olivia started leaving her discarded plates and food packaging around the common area. Her annoyance only grew as she saw the Olivia was leaving her soiled laundry on the couch, coffee table, and even the floor. Another sting of annoyance was Olivia’s insistence on calling her “Tay.” Taylor had repeatedly asked her to use her full name but Olivia constantly “forgot” until Taylor gave up. Perhaps most infuriating were those damn flats. The worn leather shoes were so deeply infused with the scent of Olivia’s aromatic soles that they constantly radiated a warm, wet stench. Olivia always left them in the middle of the living room, and when Taylor made a gentle comment about them, Olivia joked that she hated leaving them in her room, laughing while she remarked that despite their comfort they really knew how to hold a smell!
 
It was a rare evening that Olivia and Taylor were actually hanging out together. Taylor had been longingly watching her SMS website for a response from Sabrina when Olivia had stomped into the room. By this time Taylor had grown used to the disruptive pacing of her roommate and steadied herself as the titaness approached. Olivia’s looming face had peered down and she insisted that she and Taylor watch a movie together. Though Taylor protested the giantess had reached into the cube and plucked her out between her thumb and pointer finger. As she was hoisted into the air Taylor had the unfortunate imagery of a bird plucking a worm from the ground running through her head.
 
Olivia had put on some Netflix original and placed Taylor on the coffee table while she herself got comfortable on the couch. It seemed that Olivia had chosen this time to attend to some basic foot hygiene. With her soles pressed firmly against the coffee table she was cutting her nails, while absently staring at the screen. Taylor shuddered to see her roommates monolithic feet hanging over her, adorned with their usual mixture of sweat, dirt, and black insole flakes. She kept tight lipped as toe nails rained down around her. When one of Olivia’s big toenails fell squarely on her Taylor gagged from the stench and stood, glaring at the giantess, and shouted, “Can you not, while I’m right here.”
 
Olivia looked down as if suddenly remembering the tiny was there before laughing and saying, “Sorry Tay, just one more.” With that she sheared off one last toenail before placing the clippers on the coffee table, and leaving the trimmings where they lied. As Taylor began to formulate a reason to extricate herself from the situation, Olivia spoke up once again. “So I found out that the government gives money to people who caretake for nanos, some sort of social program I guess.” Taylor had heard of the program before, but she had never applied, considering the aid was supposed to be for nanos in need. She had also been secretly worried that applying would put her on some list, especially with how anti-nano President Samantha Weaver’s administration had been. Frankly, Taylor had considered the fact that she was giving Olivia a practically free room to be payment enough. Sabrina had certainly never inquired about additional payment…
 
Before Taylor could voice her concerns, Olivia told her that she had already sent an email for her to sign so that she could start getting the checks. At this point Taylor’s anger was starting to grow. “Why do we need that money, that should go to people who need it.”
 
A flash of bored annoyance crossed Olivia’s face, making Taylor feel even smaller than she was. “You don’t have to be such a bitch about,” the giantess scoffed. “It’s free money, why even turn it down. It’s not like I don’t do shit for you.” With that the conversation grew cold and silent. The movie soon came to an end and Olivia dumped Taylor unceremoniously at her bedroom door before plodding off to her own room. Taylor checked her messages to see another happy message from Sabrina, a picture with some colleagues at a fancy restaurant in Shanghai. Taylor responded with a simple “That’s so cool!” with a smiley face emoji. She went to bed and screamed into her pillow before falling asleep.
 
The next day both girls were at home, with Taylor diligently working on her next blog entry and Olivia watching something loudly on the TV. While refreshing her page and responding to comments Taylor suddenly lost connection to the internet. Frustrated, she sent Olivia a text from her console. The giantess strode into the room and loudly proclaimed that she too was having connectivity issues. While Taylor suggested simply calling the company to see if there was an outage Olivia instead insisted on a friend of hers from college who she insisted, “was really good at the nerd stuff.”
 
Within an hour, Olivia’s friend Allie was at the apartment. Allie was a tall girl, heavyset, with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes. Olivia and Allie spent some time giggling in the doorway before Taylor could hear the guest whisper, “Where is it?” At first Taylor presumed she meant the router before Olivia and her friend barged into her room.
 
Olivia knelt down and tapped gently on Taylor’s study cube, proudly exclaiming, “This is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON>.” Taylor shuddered from the nickname and did nothing to hide her unamused expression. Allie, oblivious to the nano’s annoyance also kneeled down and peered into the cube. She callously tilted the cube back to get a better vantage, sending Taylor and some of her possessions rattling across the floor.
 
“Hey!” Taylor called out. “Don’t you have the internet to fix!” She shouted as she adjusted herself. Allie pouted and stood before she and Olivia made their way back to the living room. Though they were whispering Taylor could make out the accusation and agreeance over her own bitchiness. Allie got to work and before long Taylor could connect to her site again. Allie came back into the room only to give Taylor a bubbly wave and a “nice to meet you” before heading off.
 
Over the next few weeks Taylor waited for a message from Sabrina which never came, she consigned herself to the idea that maybe her friend had finally realized the joys of life without a tiny hanger-on. As for her blog, Taylor had waded into the online controversy over “Nano Reflexology.” Almost since the first onset of RCD there had been the peculiar theories online that purported that nanos were alien creatures, magical elves, or some other oddity. Among these insane theories came the suggestion that nanos were somehow linked to human feet, perhaps from some relation between the “homunculi image” used to denote the relative areas of sensation in the body and reflexology foot charts which made the same comparison. Nonetheless there had been an ongoing online debate between the anti-vax healing crystal crowd that believed that nanos could give restorative benefits if used as insoles, and the sane people who called that out as abuse. It didn’t help that celebrities and talk show hosts would occasionally poke light at the controversy by making statements like, “I could kill to have a nano in my shoes right now. These puppies are tired!” The debate was starting to take on a political aspect as well as reports were coming out of China that nanos were being trafficked for such purposes as part of some novel eastern medicine technique. Still, Taylor was struggling to find the right combination of words to fully express her frustration and indignation at the outright lunacy of the Nano Insole trend. She saved her blog into drafts and instead put on a movie from her den.
 
While Taylor was hard at work Olivia was once again in the living room watching a movie. Taylor had really begun to question how her roommate was missing so many shifts at Starbucks, though in her effort to avoid speaking to her more than she had to, she just kept that question to herself. Based on the wafting air of feet and wine, Taylor had an idea of what Olivia was up to. Taylor was confirmed in her speculations as she felt the ground shake with Olivia’s approach. Her roommate entered her room, completely shitfaced, swaying and giggling with little provocation. “Why are you always hanging out in here by yourself,” Olivia whined.
 
“Olivia please leave,” Taylor said firmly, though she was certain to Olivia it sounded more like a plaintiff squeak. From her open office cube Taylor eyed Olivia’s dirty, twitching unpainted toes. With each sway she steadied herself, gently lurching in any given direction. Taylor’s heart began to beat a little faster as one of those heavy footfalls fell mere inches from the cube she occupied. “Please, be careful!”
 
Olivia frowned, “What’s so good about these little boxes anyway? Why do you need a whole bedroom, and a master bathroom you can’t even use for these things?” She was drunkenly slurring her words but Taylor could sense the telltale signs of Olivia’s callous annoyance at her condition. She giantess uttered a gentle whoops as she stumbled over. In horror Taylor watched as her bedroom cube was reduced splinters beneath the ball of the titaness’ foot and between the putrid depths of her toes. Olivia lifted her foot and shards of plastic fell to the carpeted floor, Taylor could just make out her tiny comforter and some of her micro-sized clothing shoved into the grimy gaps of Olivia’s toes.
 
“Look what you’ve done!” Taylor shouted out. She ran from her office cube to assess the damages, kneeling to the floor and trying to make sense of the remains. Taylor felt her heart leap to her throat as a shadow was cast over her. She peered straight up into the tanned, wrinkled expanse of Olivia’s dirty sole. In the gap between the giantess’ foot and the floor she felt as if she was caught in a warm, humid cloud of foot odor. Olivia wiggled her toes free bits of cloth and plastic to rain down on the miniscule girl beneath her foot.
 
“I don’t get the big deal anyway,” Olivia slurred. “Your whole life could fit in a shoebox, maybe even a shoe now,” she laughed as she pushed at the shattered remains of Taylor’s bedroom cube.
 
This was the final straw, Taylor finally had enough. “This isn’t working out, you need to leave, and I need to find a new roommate and caretaker.”
 
Olivia frowned, though her face never shifted from more than annoyance, “I agree some things need to change. You need to stop being such a little entitled bitch.” She spat with the word ‘bitch’ and even from her position on the floor, Taylor could feel the gentle mist of spittle. “Why would I give up such a good deal here, just because you have the need to be such a greedy little bug.”
 
Red in the face, Taylor started trodding back to her study cube when she was Olivia so casually hover her other sole over the tiny cube and gently begin to compress. Taylor cried out rushed forward, but by the time she made it, she was met with only the tanned wall of the giantess’ foot. She slammed her fists against the wall of flesh, tears in her eyes. Olivia casually said, “It wouldn’t have helped anyway. Sending out a text or anything I mean. Allie and I fixed that weeks ago.”
 
Taylor stared up with desperate confusion before the sobering giantess continued, “Yah, I mean after you wouldn’t agree to sign onto the social program I figured it would be dumb to just let it go. Allie put some program or something on the network and we hacked your email. Your girlfriend kept messaging so we had some fun with that conversation.” Taylor’s eyes widened as she began slamming feebly on Olivia’s foot, tears in her eyes. Olivia laughed, “It was fun pretending to be you, and I got to practice your high and mighty speaking style. You did a great job telling off your girlfriend for being the needy, pathetic person she is. On the other side of the world and still doting on a bug.”
 
Olivia snatched Taylor off the ground, holding her firmly in a warm grip, blowing hot wine breath in her face. Taylor sputtered, “Why don’t you just move if you don’t like me.” Though with dawning horror she was beginning to piece together the answer herself.
 
“When I volunteered for ‘Small Hands, Big Hearts’ in undergrad, I learned about the nano caretaker stipend. When I saw your ad it seemed perfect, practically free rent, and a paycheck. I mean, I guess I was so lucky that you only had one friend,” the girl smirked, proud of herself. “So what do you say Tiny Tay, let’s make a few changes.”
 
Olivia shoved Taylor into the back pocket of her jean shorts. In the tight space Taylor barely had room to maneuver, spread eagle with her chest and face pressed into the giantess’ warm, firm, butt cheek. Olivia seemed to have some fun with the nano in her new position as she did a faux stretch to touch her toes, pressing the tiny girl further into her cheek. Taylor began to sob but her cries went unheard as Olivia tossed in her air pods and began the moving process. It took a couple hours but soon Olivia had moved most of the contents of her room and the guest bathroom into the master suite.
 
The giantess plucked Taylor from her pocket and held the girl in her grasp, letting her take in the changes. “See, isn’t this a much better use of space,” Olivia beamed. Taylor’s eyes glanced to where her cubes had been, all gone aside from a few remaining splinters of plastic.
 
“Wh-where am I going to sleep, work, or anything,” Taylor cried out, by this time too tired for tears. The smell reached the nanos nose before she could actually see the offending articles. While seated on the bed Olivia kicked over her worn black flats.
 
“You know what they call roommates in England?” Olivia laughed. She released her grip and let Taylor fall onto the worn insole. While Taylor ad expected to land on a hard surface, it was actually quite squishy, and uncomfortably warm. As Taylor remained with her hands and knees now soaked in the grime of sweat and dirt she began to choke on the odor. She turned to peer up into Olivia’s bemused face. “We’re going to be flat mates!” Olivia gleefully answered her own joke.
 
Taylor crawled to the edge of the flat, reaching both arms and begging the titaness for mercy. Olivia’ playing grabbed the edge with her toes, wiggling them and sending the nano sprawling backwards. “Oh! Eager to check out the amenities?” the giantess teased. She slowly, teasingly began to insert her foot into the flat. “Well you have your pick of the room first, I think it’s pretty roomy under my toes, though if you are looking for something different I have been aching for a new insole.” Taylor crawled backwards on her hands, desperate to avoid the wiggling toes that were grasping for her diminutive frame. “Naturally food and drink is included,” the girl spread her toes unveiling the collection of toejam. “Don’t worry, the sweat should start flowing within a few minutes, once we’re both comfortable.”
 
The last slivers of light were beginning to be filtered between the gaps in Olivia’s toes. Taylor called out hoarsely desperate to be heard by anyone. “As for work, you’ll definitely have a more rewarding job than working on a stupid blog.” Olivia’s voice was beginning to be muffled. “There’s always crap between my toes that needs cleaning, and these insoles are starting to give a little too much.” With her foot fully inserted Olivia began pressing down on Taylor. The girl screamed briefly as the air was forced from her lungs. Her face was pressed beneath the ball of Olivia’s foot, her body beneath her insole, and one arm feebly reaching out between her toes. “Oh yah, you’ll do just fine.”
 
As Olivia gently lifted her foot Taylor gasped. She was choking on the air, ripe with vinegar and cornchips. She desperately scratched the underside of the giantess’ toes and soles, her hands passing over soft, moist skin and rough callouses. Olivia giggled and wiggled her toes, causing Taylor to be forcefully rubbed back and forth along the bottom of her foot. “I didn’t realize you would be so eager!” Taylor found that she came to rest with her head between Olivia’s second and third toe and copious amounts of toe jam and grime in her face. Before long her new “flatmate” simply forgot about her and went about her business, though Taylor had no such luxury.
 
Taylor had little to no way to tell how much time passed, for some indeterminate period Olivia was insistent on teaching the nano how to be a proper flatmate, and refused to take off her flats until such time. Taylor’s every waking moment was spent in deference to Olivia’s hungry toes and crushing soles. An almost animalistic, survival instinct took over as she greedily breathed in the ripe aromas of Olivia’s toes through pitiful gasps of air. Beads of sweat which had instantly filled her with revulsion had become a desperate source of hydration. Dead skin and toe jam became her only sustenance. The girl could barely spare a thought on her distasteful existence or succumb to soul wracking sobs of self pity.
 
Olivia had been much more forceful of a host than the nano had been upon first meeting. Though Taylor initially resisted with all of her strength, the constant crushing under the ball of her foot, the grinding between her toes, and Olivia’s insistence on not giving her a moment of reprieve had truly broken her. Should Olivia spread her toes within the confined flat Taylor knew it was a sign to get to work, cleaning out the irritable gunk that formed between her digits. She soon learned that her landlord was displeased with just her hands, and ensured a quality job by running her tiny tongue over the paths of sour flesh. It was on Taylor to identify the telltale signs of an itch, anywhere from heel to toe. If she failed to react in time, she would found herself ground forcefully between the expansive wrinkled soles, and moist insole, as Olivia dealt with the issue herself. Taylor also soon found that the giantess was dissatisfied to simply let the nano exist in her mire or toe jam and sweat, in nearly every waking moment Taylor was expected to constantly be kneading her roommates soles, salivating along her wrinkles, or scratching at the calloused skin.
 
Soon Taylor was awarded with out-of-flat privileges, naturally never away from Olivia’s soles, but in a modicum of fresh air.  On one such day Olivia had her feet propped up on the coffee table as she wiggled her toes, grinding her tiny captive between them. Taylor placed firm kisses on the sour flesh as she kneaded the giantess’ sole, running her diminutive fingers along the imprints. Olivia was having a wine night with Allie. Her friend’s soles were also propped up on the coffee table, pudgy toes and wide fragrant soles swaying as the girls watched a movie. Taylor had the fortune of being shown off to Allie, and the privilege of feasting on a different flavor foot funk before Olivia eagerly grabbed her back. The bigger girl seemed disappointed but understandably couldn’t hog Olivia’s property. Taylor couldn’t help but entertain the thought that perhaps in Allie’s shoes she could have experienced a crushing death, but due to the nano physiology’s unique ability to withstand punishment she doubted that would have worked in any case.
 
While Taylor eagerly serviced Olivia’s especially moist soles that evening, her flatmate and Allie discussed other more pedestrian things. Taylor heard their conversation but it seemed to be almost alien, as if they were talking about another person, certainly not the bug desperately worshiping the gaps of Olivia’s toes. She just made out Olivia’s plan to sell the condo and move to a one bedroom that she enjoyed more, Allie had already ensured that Olivia was on the path to having power of attorney over little Tay, and unfortunately there weren’t more legal protections for nanos. Despite constant lobbying of Congress, fraud was especially rampant when it came to the vulnerable nano population. As Taylor greedily chewed at a patch of calloused skin on the ball of Olivia’s foot she could only vaguely think that once they left the condo there was no hope of anyone finding her again. She didn’t know what her tormentors had messaged Sabrina but as far as she was aware the girl had made no effort to see her, now if the thought struck her to reconcile, she wouldn’t even know where to find her friend.
 
Taylor stopped her worshipful tasks for a moment and tears began to run down her face. Allie seemed to notice the pitiful sounds and guffawed. “Oh don’t you worry little Tay,” Olivia cooed, over her glass of wine. “No matter where we go you will always have a home.” With that Taylor lost her out-of-flat privileges. Still clinging to Olivia’s toes she was lowered into the warm, humid flat. She sobbed openly, feeling salty tears run down her face, to mix with the beads of sweat that formed on the putrid surface she was adhered to. She could barely make out the muffled voices in the world outside her own. Allie was questioning what Olivia was going to do about the social worker inspection, to which Olivia replied that she knew a person…
 
Olivia was sitting on the ground, casually flipping through messages on Instagram on her phone as her friend Rebecca sat in front of her, a glass of wine in one hand, and a tablet in her lap. Olivia sat with her legs outstretched and little Tay climbing between her toes, swinging about and continuing her never ending tasks. Rebecca was the social worker meant to sign off on Olivia taking over power of attorney for Taylor, and ensuring the continuation of those checks meant for the nanos care. While Taylor might have had a little glimmer of hope initially that this would be her saving grace, upon seeing the KEEP AMERICA BIG phone case that Rebecca sported, all such hope went out the window. Within the Weaver administration it had been exceedingly common to see bureaucratic positions meant to help nanos largely be filled by individuals with no such desires.
 
“Sorry that they smell a bit,” Olivia laughed as she absentmindedly wiggled her toes. “I told her that she could have her own room and everything but she INSISTED on living between my toes. You know these nanos.”
 
Rebecca gave an almost predatory look as she watched Taylor desperately lick Olivia’s big toe. Right now she was straddling the giantess’ third toe, and desperately searching for any stretch of sole or toe that had gone uncared for. “You know what they say, once they have a taste for it that’s all they’ll ever want,” Rebecca laughed, causing hot wine breath to waft over the nano. Taylor from months ago might have been driven to tears by this callous conversation, but now she continued at her work instinctually, numb to everything else around her. “Can you believe people fight so that these things can continue to vote, and have jobs.” The social worker sneered. “I’m just happy that I can ensure they get put to proper use in this position. I’ve actually got one cleaning my gym sneakers at home right now,” she snickered.
 
Rebecca stood, tapping away at her tablet. “Alright you should be all good Olivia, you enjoy your little toe jam muncher.”
 
Olivia passed a bemused look to the nano desperately looking to please her. She scrunched her toes feeling the miniscule girl twist and deform between her sweaty digits. The nano redoubled her efforts, trying to beg mercy from her goddess through apologetic kisses and caresses. “Thank you Rebecca, I mean what would I do without my little flatmate.” With that Olivia stood, inserting her foot back into the putrid flat that had become Taylor’s home. The nano settled into her normal position, an imprint developed in her own miniscule form. Encased in a tomb of warm flesh she succumbed to the darkness and got to work tidying. A clean home was a happy home after all. “Next text”. Jeff always remembered a phrase his father had taught him from the time he was old enough to understand, "You make your stand where you have come to rest." As a teenager the phrase had meant little to him, his father was always a moralist, ideologically steadfast, and politically active but Jeff could not muster the raw passion that his father had. At 24 Jeff would come to contract RCD, Rapid Cellular Degeneration, the notorious Shrinking Disease. Suddenly he found himself in a new minority and at the mercy of legislation that would come to decide his fate. He realized that his father's words had rung true, he would be making his ideological stand for nanos, the new position in which he found himself, and he was finally ready to join the fight.

In the few years since the disease had swept the world legislation had been erratic and unevenly enforced, truth be told very few people knew how to handle the situation. The former Center for Disease Control, RCD Task Force had gradually evolved into the Burea of Nano Affairs, a money guzzling pit that had come no closer to a cure, nor vaccine, but seemed content to simply find ways to help nanos integrate into baseline society. Though the BNA had gained the support of Nano Civil Liberty Union, their inefficacy had drawn the ire of certain congressional members and baseline voters.

The Fellowship of the Mountain was a religious sect who viewed the coming of nanos as a miracle from God, and saw the diminutive beings as servile creatures quite different than man. They took advantage of the political ire against the BNA to form a new political movement, the Great Society of Christ, which came to be known as GSOC. They were headed by media mogul, Samantha Weaver, who was on a fast track to the White House, running on a platform of rolling back the BNA regulations and letting society rather than the state help determine the fate of Nanos, arguing that no great amount of funding should support such a small minority.

Election night had come and Jeff was attending a rally in DC on the reflecting pool lawn. Perched on the shoulder of a friend he looked over the great crowd and took in the myriad of shouts coming from the various groups that had formed. Signs were waived on both sides protesting for and rallying against political protection of Nanos. Riot police attempted maintain peace between the two camps but as the numbers rolled in, outrage began to grow across the sea of people. Weaver was starting to win state by state with narrow margins, each passing second almost assuring her victory.

Jeff couldn't quite say when it happened or who started it but suddenly the crowd was whipped into a frenzy. His friend was shoved roughly in the shoulder and Jeff suddenly saw the ground hurtling towards him. He landed roughly on a patch of grass and dirt, dazed but not dead. Above him titans warred as a storm of feet thundered around him. Jeff stumbled to his feet and ran blindly, unable to find any sure avenue to safety. Amidst the darkness he could barely make out other Nanos attempting to find sanctuary. He briefly made eye contact with another Nano, a disheveled, panicked girl several feet away. With a knot in his throat Jeff watched a gargantuan protestor, a barefoot redhead waving a sign get shoved backwards. In a flash the shadow of a dirty, wrinkled sole came to pass over the Nano girl before the sweat streaked wall of flesh came down with a sickening thud. 

Jeff ran wildly, silently begging for any respite from the hell that had descended around him. The earth around him shook as a sandle-clad foot came down in front of him. Desperate and shaken Jeff clambered up the side of sandle, grasping for any handhold he could wrap his fingers around. He wormed his way between the worn leather straps and the mass of pale, damp flesh of the owner's foot. The Nano felt his stomach lurch as he rode the sandal upwards. With each step the behemoth sole would separate from the worn leather sandals platform, emitting a squelch as the sweaty wrinkled skin released. For a terrifying moment Jeff would hang onto the sandals leather strap, as he began to slip into the damp crevice before pulling himself out at the last moment.

With one footstep Jeff was not lucky enough to pull himself out on time. The crushing surface came over his lower half, engulfing his form and knocking the air from his lungs. His host seemed to finally take some notice of the disturbance underfoot and proceeded to adjust accordingly. Another deafening squelch and Jeff found himself sliding across the ball of the giantesses' foot, coming to rest crushed between a thick wall of flesh and between her first and second toe. The air hung heavily with the aroma of dirt and grass, but much stronger was the fog of vinegary sweat. Jeff gasped for fresh air that never met his lips, his tiny palms grasping at the massive big toe.

Each step now came with increased pain and panic. The horrifying squelch invited him into a wrinkled abyss, a crushing end. Fortunately the giantesses' sweat had helped adhere him to the underside of her toes. Though the aroma of cheese and vinegar continued to assault him, he knew it was preferable to the trampling that awaited him if he was to try and free himself. “Next text”. Diego was an average guy, average build, average hair, average job… You might not even look twice at him on the street, even moreso because he was less than one inch tall. Diego was a nano. Shortly after graduating college with his degree in Computer Science the hapless young man had been diagnosed with RCD, Rapid Cellular Degeneration, known colloquially as the Shrinking Disease. Over the course of several days he had shrunk from his previous height of five feet and nine inches to his current diminutive state. Despite this setback Diego remained determined, he had managed to score a work-at-home programming jobs with nano-sized computer accessories, he had purchased a nano-sized home in a nice nano community, and he was even making friends at the community center. That’s how he met Tommy.
 
Tommy was a nano like Diego, around the same age as well, and these two facts are about where the similarities ended. Where Diego was of average build, Tommy was a little on the big side. Where Diego was rather meek and mild, Tommy was loud and boisterous. Where Diego was rather comfortably staying at home, Tommy constantly insisted on public outing. This last attribute of Tommy’s was how the twosome found themselves attending a college baseball game.  Diego didn’t really care much for baseball, he couldn’t turn down his friend’s infectious enthusiasm. 
The Nano Civil Liberties Union had managed to lobby for sparse legislation that would require certain accommodations to be made for nanos at public events, the same as any other disability. However since the election of President Samantha Weaver, a decidedly anti-nano politician, these requirements had often gone little enforced in the states that followed Weaver’s philosophy. Diego and Tommy were escorted to what appeared to be a chicken wire cage affixed on one row of the bleachers. It was no large than a fish take, with the wire ceiling about level with the floor of the next bleachers up. The top was opened and the nanos were unceremoniously plopped down inside. They were greeted with two others sitting in nano-sized seats and struggling to see the game. By design there were no normal human seats blocking their site so despite the flimsy accommodations the view was quite good.
 
Diego and Tommy took their sites and were happily chatting away when the seats above the nano box were occupied. A squat blonde with tanned skin, sunglasses, white shorts, and a bright red ballcap that read KEEP AMERICA BIG. She was accompanied by a statuesque redhead, wearing jeans and a blue shirt, with sunglasses were perched upon her head. Diego had craned to look at the giant disruption and he gritted his teeth as he cast his eyes on the blonde’s hat. It had been a slogan of President Weaver’s during her successful campaign. Though she had argued that “Big” referred to “Big Economy”, “Big Military”, and “Big Success” just about everyone knew what it was really referring to.
 
Diego tried to focus on the game but he could see that Tommy was chuffed as well. He cast a look at his bigger friend, a warning look to tell him to not make a big deal about it. As the game progressed the two woman seemed to take notice of the small cage below them and start to laugh. It was the blonde that made the first move. Diego heard the flip flops clatter to the ground before he saw her meaty soles slap down on top of the cage. To their right, and above they could see her stubby toes hammer away at the chicken wire, as little bits of debris rained down on the other residents of the nano box. They could hear the young woman on the right side of the cage begin to lightly sob as her male companion tried to comfort her. Diego felt his heart start to beat faster as a shadow was cast over their half of the box. The redhead was peering down with a detached curiosity, noisily chewing a wad of bubblegum with her mouth open. With almost callous disregard she spat out the wad of white, and with uncanny precision it slipped through a hole in the ceiling, slamming into Tommy.
 
Diego heard Tommy roar in rage as he was entangled in the mess of spearmint and saliva. He coughed and sputtered as he struggled to peel the goo from his hair, skin, and clothing. Above they could hear their titanic tormentor let out a bemused laugh, a single minty ‘ha’ that made it down to the level. Diego jumped to his friends aid but froze again as he saw the redhead’s soles descend towards them. An impossible large expanse of creamy white, lightly calloused, and damp with sweat. Her feet landed with a solid ‘THUD’ atop the cage, sending it’s denizens sprawling to their hands and knees. Diego shook violently as he looked up and saw the redhead’s slender, unpainted toes start working their way through holes in the ceiling, wiggling, and taunting the Lilliputians beneath them. The combined smell of both pairs of feet permeated the cage, an unmistakable aroma of vinegar and cheese that dominated their senses.
 
Tommy, almost in a panic started to sidle away, closer towards the tapping soles of their blonde tormentor. Diego called out a word of warning as the right side of cage collapsed. The blonde in her exuberance had easily destroyed the flimsy ceiling on her side and caused a cave in. Her right foot had come down hardest, punishing the sobbing young woman and her male companion. The man was crushed completely, a feeble gasp being emitted from beneath the tanned, wrinkled expanse. The young woman though had her head sticking out between the titanic blonde’s third and fourth toe. Her horrified scream was quickly silenced as the giantess tormentor giggled and scrunched her toes.
 
One of the unique traits about nanos was their capacity to withstand a significant amount of physical damage, and to heal. It had led to all sorts of Facebook rumors about nano magical abilities, or the idea that nanos could pass on those healing attributes onto their larger counterparts. The CDC hadn’t yet divined why this attribute existed. All Diego knew, hearing the rattling groan of the young woman, dominated by a callous blonde giantess, was that death would not provide her release from her torment. As the blonde lifted her dirty tanned sole from the ruined remains of the cage, she flipped it over. Even from his position Diego could make out the form of the young man twisted and embedded into the ball of her foot. The young nano woman was crammed underneath her toes. The blonde turned towards her redheaded friend and giggled as she slipped her right foot back into her flip flop, the nanos in tow.
 
Tommy, like Diego, had sat shocked at what had transpired. Suddenly Tommy began to belt out insults at the Titans, alternating between almost desperate cries for help, and scathing insults. The redhead frowned, reaching two slender fingers into the cage and plucking Tommy up, gum and all. Diego watched feebly from his position under her dominating pale soles as she examined her friend. From far below Diego could hear Tommy’s indignant shouts, though from his distance they only sounded like pitiful squeaks. Diego could only imagine that was what the giantesses thought as well. In a flash the redhead through Tommy into her mouth and began to chew thoughtfully. Diego dropped to his knees and let out a desperate ‘No.” the sound escaping from his mouth like a wayward breath.
 
The redhead reached into her mouth and pulled out the white wad of gum, and even from his distance Diego could make out his friend’s twitching limbs from within the mass. In a weak position like their own, invulnerability, or even perhaps immortality, was nothing more than a curse. As if forgetting the sentient being within the mess of spearmint, the redhead casually stuck the gum to the underside of the bench. Diego’s blood ran cold as he saw her eyes fall upon him again. Still on his knees, he bowed his head and clasped his hands. He uttered silent prayers to any being that would listen, and did his best to appear as meek and pathetic as possible.
 
The redhead’s gargantuan toes made little work of the remaining remnants of the cage ceiling. As Diego cautioned a look upwards he could see those digits descending down towards him. A casual flick of her unpainted big toe on her right foot sent Diego onto his back. The moist ball of her foot compressed the nano’s body drawing the air from his lungs. All that remained free from the crushing embrace of her foot was his head, peering out between her big and second toe, between globs of gray and black toe lint. Diego could feel the blood rush to his face as the pressure intensified, the heat and tingling sensation increasing. When soon felt could take it no longer she released the pressure and air rushed back into his lungs. He greedily sucked in the air, tainted by the sour taste of vinegar and cheese.
 
She wrapped her toes around his feeble body and Diego allowed himself to pass through her pale digits. It was as if she was examining her new catch, testing him out, and kicking the tires. With his upper half wedged between her big and second toe, Diego was lifted from the cage and under the bench. He looked up and saw Tommy, silently mouthing the word ‘help’ while steadfastly adhered to the underside of the bench. Diego could still only look on helplessly as his pale couriers dropped him to his new resting place below. A dirty brown flip flop, with a striking black footprint worn into the surface from years of repeated use. Diego landed where the ball of her foot would land, and scuttled towards the toes. His new goddess made her desires clear as she used her big toe to knock him to his back, and drag him across the surface until the top of his head touched the strap that would straddle her big and second toe.
 
Diego attempted to shout out a pleaful beg as the gargantuan foot encompassed him. He struggled to catch the most meager stream of air beneath her toes she settled into position. As the baseball game continued the redhead seemed to forget about him. All Diego had for company were her pale callouses, rough soles, and the steady beads of sweat that washed over him. Diego cried out hoarsely but he was certain that his pleas would go unheard. He coughed and sputtered on the stench, struggling to claw his way out from a prison of foot flesh. His efforts were only rewarded with scrunching toes that distorted his body and brought fresh stabs of his pain throughout his entire being. He could not tell whether this was punishment or a reflexive reaction on the part of his captor.
 
After what felt like an eternity Diego felt them on the move. Each footstep was like death, a loud sweaty squelch and weightlessness, followed by what felt to be buried alive with a planet’s worth of pressure above. With each step up Diego let in a loud, greedy breath and each step down he gritted his teeth and presumed his end. Dimly, in the back of his mind, he thought of Tommy, still stuck to the underside of the bench. Diego succumbed to unconsciousness.
 
When Diego awoke he was straddling the second toe of his goddess facing outwards. He cautioned a look into her direction and saw only detached bemusement. He turned away and he could see the lens of a cellphone camera, the titan blonde behind it. An audible snap, after which the blonde began happily typing away at the touchscreen. From what Diego could ascertain, between fits of panic, he was being posted to Instagram, a photographic trophy to mark a successful catch. Helpless between the toes of his casually cruel redheaded goddess, Diego was lowered back onto the flip flop. As he was roughly shoved into position underneath the monolithic digits he could only think forward with despair about what his life would soon become.
 
 
After the game had ended the nano usher returned to find the ruined cage. The police had been called and two cops were “investigating” the scene. By any admission no one seemed particularly surprised or at all engaged. There were nano political rights activists to shrilly squeak in their ears so they were doing the bare minimum. They hadn’t even requested who had sat in which seats, simply writing a rote description of the “tragedy” that occurred. The male cop quickly finished his notes and gathered his things, signaling for his female partner to do the same.
 
The female police officer peered under the bench and could see Tommy’s twitching form and coarse cries for help. She reached under and plucked the nano off with a look of disgust on her face. Almost as quickly she scrubbed the nano on the bottom of her dress shoe, freeing him of the hardened gum. Tommy started to breathe a little easier until he saw his savior look slyly over her left and right shoulder. She kicked off her dress shoe and dangled the nano over the steaming entrance. Tommy begged and pleaded, but the words could barely escape his mouth.
 
He found himself plopped down on the hard surface of the dress shoe as a sweaty, sock clad foot followed. Tommy choked on the cloying aroma of feet and struggled desperately underfoot. Nano in place the officer gathered her things and joined her partner.
 
Another nano tragedy. Ah well, they should have known better than to try and mingle with the big folk… and it wasn’t as if there weren’t millions more, and more to come. “Next text”. Ben lived by a simple ethos, his body was a temple and he had to treat it like one. The 30 year old was dedicated to fitness and healthy living through everything he did, exercise every day, meal prepping and calorie counting, plenty of water, and plenty of sleep. He loved to feel healthy, energetic, and push his body to the limits.

As he did every morning during the workweek Ben rode his bike through downtown Cala Grande to his office building, keeping his heart rate up but not enough to really start sweating. He passed by the popular Nanoworx Store in the busy shopping area where there were a flock of women perusing the advertisements and wares.

He eyed one of the digital advertisements, a pretty young woman dancing along to music against a bright colorful background, her palm flat and upwards by her side, before the video zoomed in to show a diminutive man, only about half an inch tall, dancing on her palm. The screen then shifted to the Nanoworx logo and a little tagline reading "Think Small."

Ben of course knew about nanos, they were people afflicted by the shrinking disease, or more accurately "Human Metamorphic Retrovirus" aka MRV. When he was graduating high school the pandemic started, people initially panicked, but when it was determined only 2% of the population was impacted… panic turned to anger over things like government spending on nanos, or social complaints over the use of new terms like "macro human" vs normal sized. It's how media mogul Samantha Weaver went from another talking head on the news to President of the United States, on her "Keep America Big" campaign.

Ben supposed things were better now. Sure people were still going around with KAB hats and there were some folks that seemed to really dislike nanos, but it couldn't be all bad if companies like Nanoworx were advertising that they had Nano employees, or something. Ben didn't pay too much attention to the ads, they were mostly targeted at women, but he had occasionally come across some crossover when it came to health services.

He knew nanos were employed by contract, doing things like massage, dental work, manicures, pedicures, etc. It was all the rage on social media, Nano services or whatever it was called. Always shown to be sprightly little companions in Nanoworx ads, dressed in brightly colored clothes, shorts and tops for the female ones, beaming and stylish. In his mind he kind of likened it to them being halfway between iphones and personal assistants, a peculiar trend but hey, Nanoworx made nanos popular so that was a good thing right? A way for nanos to contribute to society.

Ben never really worried about MRV. He knew people in their 20s and 30s were more susceptible to the disease but he always made sure to keep healthy. It was the people who ate junk food on their couches everyday that had to be worried, he was confident that his immune system could protect him against anything. In any case he did always try to start the day with a super food smoothie with a copious amounts of protein, you couldn't be too careful.

Ben finally made it to his office building, a kind of plain office where he worked in software development. Ben enjoyed the work he did and even his coworkers. He locked up his bike, adjusted his clothing and headed inside, draining the rest of his water bottle as he headed to his desk in the cubicle area. His nice button down was a feeling a little looser this morning, he took it as a little sign of victory that his current cut was going well.

No sooner had Ben thrown down his backpack and began fishing around his laptop then he heard his first greeting for the morning.

"Heeey, Benny," Vicky called from across the aisle in her own cubicle. Another software dev that Ben bad worked with in the same group for several years. She was a few years older than him, mid-30s, horn rimmed glasses and light blonde hair that hung down to her shoulders. Where Ben was lean and muscular Vicky was a bit pudgy, round freckled cheeks, a little belly, and a wide bottom giving her a somewhat pear-shaped physique.

"Hey Vicky, good weekend?" Ben asked with a grin. He always figured Vicky had a bit of a crush on him with the way she would coo and flirt, and though she was a bit cute, Ben knew the two had… different priorities. Ben lived biking, hiking, and lifting, and Vicky was more about gossip, baking, and eating. She jutted a plastic container forward, shaking it slightly. Chocolate chip cookies jostled about, no doubt freshly baked.

"I made cookies!" she beamed happily, standing up to walk closer to his desk. "Please Benny you haaaave to try one."

Ben patted his stomach and smiled, "No can do, you know what I say-"

"Blah blah, body is a church or something," Vicky stuck her tongue out then a cookie into her mouth. She chewed with her mouth partially open as she spoke, giving Ben a front row seat the slimy mass of cookie being mashed between her jaws. "You have to let loose sometime Ben," little bits of crumb and spittle dabbed her chin. "You're really missing out."

Ben opened his mouth to make a retort, craning his neck ever so slightly up to look into Vicky's pale blue eyes when suddenly she interrupted.

"Wait a minute, aren't you normally taller than me?"

===

"Mr. Wilson, after reviewing your case, based on your insurance status, and lack of macro guardianship, I think we're going to keep on track to have you moved to Colony 33 after you are released from the hospital."

Ben was an inch tall standing on a plastic desk, as large as a football field, a building sized laptop to his left and behind it a giantess of almost imperceptible size. He kept his arms crossed, attempting to look like he was keeping it together, as much as he could wearing his tiny hospital gown and looking like he could drown in a shot glass. 

His case worker, Ms. Jennifer Russo was a plain, button-upped bureaucrat from the Bureau of Nano Affairs. She had long dark hair and sported a mostly mirthless appearance. As she kept her eyes on her laptop her chipped, painted finger nails drummed the table. A mindless action for her was sending vibrations that nearly sent Ben onto his bottom, but still be kept his footing. He supposed he was just another of the hundreds or thousands of nanos she had to deal with but he would be appreciated more than just the plain, matter of fact tone she frequently gave him.

The past few weeks had been a blur of doctor appointments, being dropped from his insurance, being fired, hospitalization, and trying to navigate the maze that was public assistance. Every new turn revealed info he just hadn't paid attention to before. Insurance companies were apparently under no obligation to fund MRV treatments since a Congressional bill a few years prior, schools and employers didn't have to make accommodations, public assistance had a "duty to seek employment."

The whole process was frustrating and humiliating. If he had the right insurance, money in the bank, or a macro he could trust with guardianship he could be living in a nano community like Chestnut Meadows or Noble Park, a subdivision in small scale, where he could work or relax at his leisure. At least there he could still enjoy things like running or exercise… but he didn't have those things. He was going on government assistance, a program between the BNA and Nanoworx where he would get to live in a Nanoworx Nano Colony with his only requirement being to seek some employment.

"The, um, duty to seek employment?" Jennifer's gaze passed over him, an eyebrow raised. "Do I get to speak with a occupational counselor or something, I'm a software dev so I think I'd need special equipment."

"Don't worry about that," Jennifer's attention was once again focused on her computer. She idly used her pinky nail to pick between her teeth. "Nanoworx will see to you being gainfully employed."

===

The Ant Farm. He heard it in passing at first but shortly before leaving the hospital it was all Ben could think about. Nanoworx had their corporate headquarters in Cala Grande, a sprawling campus with a number of different buildings. One of which had a room known colloquially as the Ant Farm. It was apparently sort of like a server room. Tall transparent, plastic monoliths, 6 feet tall, and 2 feet a side at the base. A collection of rooms and floors set up like a hamster cage, terrarium, or you know…an Ant Farm. 1000 Nanos to a colony, 50 Colonies currently in the Ant Farm and he was destined for number 33.

He had left the hospital in a Boost carrier, basically a gyro stabilized transport for nanos. It was like an auditorium, room enough for dozens of nanos but only a few seats were filled, all headed for the Ant Farm. Upon checking out of the hospital and to the carrier the nanos had engaged in some small talk but as they proceeded there was no more talk, just them alone with their thoughts and the everpresskng question, "what comes next?"

===

The lab table was freezing cold and the technician wasn't gentle as she used her index finger to keep Ben in place. He screamed and squirmed, flat on his stomach, as she pushed down further on his bottom. He could hear her humming along to whatever tinny pop music was playing from her airpods, oblivious or at least ambivalent to his protests.

A buzzing sound, terribly loud, filled Ben with gut wrenching fear. He could feel the cold tip of the needle touch the skin of his back, the sharp pain and incessant vibration took his breath away before it returned in a terrified shriek.

When all was said and done he had a bright blue circle tattooed across his back. A tattooed Radio Frequency Identifier tag originally used to track insects for biological research and now repurposed. A simple scan would bring up the Nanoworx profile on their contractor, medical history, work history, personality, skills, etc. A broad area scan could easily reveal a hidden tagged nano. Of course the bright blue circle on bare skin also made their status as Nanoworx contractors obvious… they were told it was for their own good, their own safety and convenience. They were blue tagged.

===

It turned out that the Ant Farm did have something in the form of occupational counselors, they were like managers, trainers, police officers, drill sergeants, overseers… wardens. Within Colony 33 Ben and half a dozen other hapless new nanos were assigned to William Pike, a nano like themselves, at least if only in size.

Luke, another nano in Ben's cohort was on the ground again sobbing, Pike stood over him continuing to brandish the micro sized stun baton in his hand. Ben only looked on sadly at his fellow "contractor", nude aside from the brightly colored shorts and bright blue circle on his back. Not quite the picture of happiness depicted in the Nanoworx ads.

"Congrats you just earned a few days of insole training, maybe that'll teach you a little respect."

"Sir, please," Luke begged, to which he was rewarded with a firm kick to the ribs.

Over the past few weeks Ben had really been given his introduction to what it meant to be a nano, particularly a Nanoworx nano. He learned they were strong, physically resilient in a way he could have never anticipated. He had been crushed to near flatness and reformed, battered, broken, gone days with neither food nor water, and had overall really put through the ringer. This has all been in training, at the miniscule hands of the wardens, to push his limits and make him aware of what would be expected.

He had also learned what it was that Nanoworx nanos did for work. They were rented out in their stores, (mostly) women signed out contracts, like a cell phone plan. They were to be the perfect little companions, happy, eager to serve and keep their clients happy. They were nano assistants, the forward face of Nanoworx. If one failed in their duty to be anything but the perfect little nano, there were worse jobs… Ben watched as Luke was dragged away by other Wardens.

Pike's attention turned to Ben and he felt his blood run cold. Pike was in his late 30s or perhaps early 40s, tall (for a nano) and a face etched in stone. As a warden ateast be was given the privilege of a nano sized jumpsuit, and if the rumors were true something better than the nutrient slop the were fed in the Ant Farm. Still Ben knew better than to show any sign of rebellion or resistance, Pike was a sadistic sonuvabitch.

"Ben, you get to go out on contract for the first time tomorrow." 

The nano nodded cautiously before quickly blurting out. "Sir, yes, sir."

"And when your client speaks, how do you address them?"

"Ms or Mrs, Sir."

"And when they ask you pick the lint from between their toes, boogers out of their nose, or the crumbs between their teeth what the fuck are you going to do contractor."

Ben swallowed, a knot forming in his throat, and his face growing hot as Pike's eyes drilled into him. "Serv- Service with a Smile, Sir."

===

Ben was in a clear display case, multicolored LEDs flashing and obnoxious music playing as he danced along to the pop tune, a cheesy smile on his face, as he was trained. Women were happily meandering around the shop, tapping away on displays showing pictures and details on the various nano assistants, and glancing over at the display cases. Despite the exhaustion and stress Ben didn’t let down his energy nor smile for a moment, for fear of the repercussions… however he could not help but feign a little surprise at the woman who approached his display case.

Vicky’s eyes lit up with fascination as she leaned in close. The pudgy freckled cheeks, horn rimmed glasses over icy blue eyes, and long strands of pale blonde hair, unmistakable and yet almost alien now at his size. Ben knew what was going to happen next but he didn’t let his smile falter.

===

“Oh yah, I just went for the two year contract, it’s much cheaper that way, I think I’m paying like $90 a month now,” Vicky idly chatted with her coworker Janet. “Cupcake?” she excitedly asked as she shoved a plastic container of homemade cupcakes towards the girl, each a swirl of white icing covered in a variety of pastel sprinkles.

Janet politely declined before asking, “I’ve really been thinking of heading down to the Nanoworx store, do you think it’s worth it?”

Vicky opened her mouth wide and take a large bite of cupcake, licking icing, sprinkles, and a bit of drool from her lip. “Oh for sure,” she said, a mouth full of cupcake as a small bit of crumbs escaped her maw. She giggled, “And little Benny finally can’t say no to my delicious baking.”

Within the confines of Vicky’s mouth Ben labored, as he had for weeks and would for years to come. For the first few days she had contented herself with poking and teasing him as he called her Miss Vicky, danced for her, and otherwise found any myriad of ways to amuse her. The Nanoworx app had suggested for her a nice teeth cleaning after a snack to which Ben, with the same forced grin, obliged. From there Vicky just seemed to enjoy keeping her little nano assistant in her mouth, idly chewing him as though he was a piece of gum, and enjoying his little labors between her teeth and under her tongue.

Ben was compressed into Vicky’s second bicuspid, his lower half crushed and his right arm trapped between her first and second bicuspid. Every time Vicky spoke the words boomed around him, temporarily trading the oppressive dark humidity of her maw for a brief glimpse of light and an outside world. Ben gasped as her massive writhing tongue passed over him idly, the muscle was the size of a school bus and the tip of it was idly trying to extricate Ben’s arm from between the bicuspids. Waves of warm, sticky saliva washed over him, the nano struggled to breath. He figured Vicky didn’t even consciously think about what she was doing, he was just another little bit of food stuck between her teeth.

Finally Ben managed to extricate his shattered arm, he knew it would heal quickly, that was his curse in this place. No matter how many times those crushing teeth came down, no matter how many hours he treaded the saliva pools beneath her tongue, no matter how those incisors might shatter bone and pierce skin… his nano physiology would keep him alive. He had contemplated simply throwing himself down the dark tunnel of her gullet and surrendering himself to her digestive processes but he honestly wasn’t even sure that would be the end of him. So now he simply focused on the moment to moment survival, the little things he had to do to make this bearable.

Blinding light as a cupcake approached, some massive foreign object. He was awash in cake, icing, and sprinkles mixed with a copious amount of saliva. Ben flowed back with the sticky mass towards her crushing molars. Vicky’s teeth came down. CRUNCH. On his back as teeth came down compressing him with the mass of food, flattening flesh and bone with sugar and crumbs. He idly reached a useless arm up in the darkness as the molar came down again. CRUNCH. He opened his mouth to scream and cupcake flavored saliva rushed in. He choked and sputtered as he tried to peel himself off of Vicky’s molar. CRUNCH. He was folded over on top of himself, further compressed. He probably looked like some poor, mashed up piece of gum.

Her gullet quickered, saliva and masses of food vacated the atrium of her maw, while her slimy tongue held his battered body in place on her molar. A practiced motion, probably not even one she thought about actively anymore. That same saving tongue shoved Ben forward, back to her bicuspids, awash with remnants of that bite of cupcake. Ben knew what he was expected to do. Vicky’s giggle reverberated all around him, an oppressive and impossibly loud sound.

He crawled over her teeth, shoveling slimy handfuls of cupcake into his own mouth. Really his only form of sustenance within the giantess’ mouth was whatever was left behind, and he supposed Vicky gained some sort of satisfaction from this. Wave after wave of saliva washed over him as he continued to shovel the remnants of her snack into his own malnutritioned body or the pools of saliva to his right. With effort and strain he lifted the sprinkles as long as his arm from the pit of her mouth, as much a part of the process of Vicky’s mastication as her wiggling tongue or the waves of choking saliva. 

In a moment of clarity Ben felt hot tears come to his eyes, to mix with the sticky sweet saliva.He had once thought of his body as a temple but that wasn’t the case anymore, here in this atrium of teeth, tongue, and saliva… Vicky’s mouth alone was a temple, and he was her worshiper. “Next text”. *Kayla, ETA? We have the ad review meeting in 5 minutes…* Tim scanned over the Slack message again before sighing and backspacing, leaving just *Kayla, ETA?* and hitting send. He turned his attention back to Adobe Premiere, opened in the background on his MacBook, and watched through another one minute segment that he had been hastily editing all morning. It had been Kayla's job of course, a small task for her to handle on her own, but she had never been one to really step up to the plate when needed.

She was a 25 year old with a decent video editing portfolio, and easily talked a big game, but when it came down to actually doing the work it seemed like she was just checked out, not helping out much but ready to take praise when offered. Tim had been working for the agency for a few years, 27 years old and video editing was his passion. He would have thought movies instead of advertisements… but his student loans had to be paid off somehow. He and Kayla had started at the same time but rather than helping each other out Tim felt like she only added more onto his plate between tight deadlines, having to train Kayla on things she should already know, and keep on top of her to do list when she let things fall between the cracks.

"Oh, hey," Tim heard a voice behind him call. Kayla stood behind him, a sort of stocky woman with short, dark blond hair with a dyed green streak, round glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose, and a kind of bored expression. She had a Starbucks iced drink in one hand, with chipped white nail polish, and her MacBook in the other. "I meant to finish that segment but-"

Tim offered the most strained smile he could muster, "don't worry about it, it's done." Kayla's expression barely faltered, just a small sheepish smile. "Come on, we have to run the video by Charlie for the first pass."

Sitting in the dark conference room they all watched the advertisement play, it was a simple job for a frequent customer, Nanoworx. The same kind of vibe they always went for, happy, attractive young women dancing along with half inch tall Nanos. Bright colors and poppy music that were meant to be at home as interstitial ads on social media, something to make someone idly scrolling Instagram or Tik Tok stop and feel a little bit of FOMO that they didn't have a nano assistant of their own.

Tim scanned the room for reactions, Charlie had his usual engaged but unrevealing expression, Janet was smiling and nodding her head along to the music, Kayla was browsing some social media app on her phone while sipping her coffee. Tim couldn't help but roll his eyes slightly before looking back at the video he had edited.

He didn't really know much about nanos really, just what Nanoworx gave them in the pitch sheets and what he saw in other ads or the news. He was just starting high school when the whole shrinking scare thing first happened, when the Metamorphic Retrovirus, MRV, pandemic began. It died down as scientists learned more about it and deduced that it wasn't an issue for something like 98% of people. For those it did effect, they shrank down to around half an inch tall and were referred to as nanos. The government did a lot to try and provide medical care and everything but then normal sized people, macros, started getting angry about where their tax dollars were going.

When he was still in college he remembered media talking head Samantha Weaver going on the news and railing against all the "wasted taxpayer dollars" before running for her successful presidential bid. Tim had even participated in counter protests. Now though he figured companies like Nanoworx (and maybe to a lesser extent Wondertech) had turned things around. Over the last few years Nanoworx had worked on occupational programs for nanos, and with ad campaigns like their "Think Small" campaign, it really seemed to turn things around in terms of public perception.

Rather than just thinking of nanos as hapless people afflicted by a terrible disease, they were, you know, cool and popular. Nano assistants were like some trendy cross between having a personal assistant, and with the silicon valley sheen of having a new smartphone. Tim was kind of proud of his work for that reason, it was like a PR campaign for nanos. They were all over social media now. He didn't really dive much deeper into it, but at least it seemed better than stuff like President Weaver's Keep America Big rallying cry.

Emilia Watts, the Aussie billionaire that founded Nanoworx, was always on social media now talking about how successful the initiative was. Yah you had naysayers like Wondertech's CEO Nate Cooper, but Tim chalked that up to basic jealousy. Wondertech had a decade to try something like this and Nanoworx pulled it off in just a few years.

"Dude this is awesome," Charlie announced, clapping his hands happily. "Great job guys, I'll give you my notes and we can make a few adjustments, and we'll go from there." 

"Thanks Charlie!" Kayla beamed. Kayla was all smiles now, never eager to do the work, but always happy for the praise. Tim couldn't help but roll his eyes a little.

"Nanoworx has been kind enough to also extend some of their employee discounts our way if you ladies are interested," Charlie continued on. 

Tim felt his phone start to buzz in his pocket, excusing himself from the conference room and stepping outside. It was his doctor, a little surprising, they usually sent the results from his annual physical by email.

"Tim?" Dr. Nguyen asked, a note of concern in her voice. "I think you need to come into my office as soon as possible."

===

Things changed rather quickly for Tim. In what seemed like no time at all he went from developing trendy advertisements for nanos, to being thrust into the reality of what it meant to be a nano-american. Dr. Nguyen said he was fortunate to get a diagnosis so early, time to put his affairs in order, though Tim didn’t quite feel lucky. Being diagnosed with the Metamorphic Retrovirus (MRV) was like having a guillotine hanging over his neck, a grim realization that he would be shrinking to a mere half an inch in what could be weeks, or even days.

Following the diagnosis, symptoms set in quickly, fever, pain, weakness. All this and Tim was grappling with a domino effect of adversity. He found out, like many other nanos had, due to recent legislation his insurance wasn’t required to cover his condition, he was the government's problem now. 

He avoided it as long as he could with sick days and trying to work from home… but eventually he had to let Charlie know what was going on. Of course Charlie had been sympathetic, they’d worked together for four years and he made it seem like everything was going to be okay. That is until a few days later when he was no longer able to talk to Charlie and he was instead dealing with the advertising agency's HR department. No familiarity, no history, no camaraderie. A corporate face that simply told him the hard facts that they would not be able to provide accommodations for his condition and wished to terminate his employment.

When he was at the end of his rope he got correspondence from none other than Nanoworx, a solution to his current issues, lodging and care at their Nano colony on their corporate campus, in exchange for his employment.

===

He had been staying at Cala Grande General before making his transition to the Nanoworx colony, or as he learned it was nicknamed, the Ant-Farm. Tim had been assigned to Colony 33, and the transition was a surreal experience to say the least. As he left the hospital, a Boost carrier transported him alongside other nanos destined for the colony. He had been briefed beforehand,  tall transparent, plastic monoliths, 6 feet tall, and 2 feet a side at the base. 1000 Nanos to a colony, 50 Colonies currently in the Ant Farm, and he was heading to lucky number 33.

Upon arrival at the Nanoworx campus, Tim and his fellow Nanos were unceremoniously dumped onto a cold lab table. A technician idly went through the process of “blue tagging” the lot of them, apathetically grabbin each screaming and crying nano, stripping of them of their clothing and pinning them to a table as she operated a device to apply a Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) tag—a vibrant blue circle tattoo—across their. It was a stark symbol of his status as a Nanoworx contractor, enabling easy tracking and identification within the complex and beyond. The process, painful and invasive, left Tim feeling exposed and marked, a constant reminder of the loss of autonomy.

Transitioning into his new living space in Colony 33 was a jarring experience. The wardens, other nanos if only in size, were a mix of supervisors, trainers, and overseers, dictated the rules and regulations with an iron fist. William Pike, one of the wardens in charge, loomed over the nanos with an intimidating presence, enforcing discipline and order within the confines of the colony.

Tim observed as fellow nanos were subjected to rigorous training, their spirits broken by the demanding exercises and the authoritarian oversight. The reality of what it meant to be a nano under Nanoworx's umbrella started to sink in—this was no idyllic community. It was a regimented environment where nanos were groomed to serve as perfect companions for their clients, a far cry from the rosy image projected by Nanoworx's advertisements, the very same he helped develop.

While he was “enjoying” a handful of nutrient mash from a trough, Warden Pike was the one to inform Tim he was part of a select group of Nanos to participate in a new Nanoworx initiative, a partnership with different companies for a program called the “Nanoworx Employee Relief Initiative.” 

===

It would’ve been almost too ironic, if Tim didn’t think it was intentional. He was back at his old office except he wasn’t video editing anymore. No, he was in a little terrarium wearing tiny, colorful, elastic shorts and idling around with other nanos. The terrarium was sitting on a counter, between the coffee maker and cereal dispenser. In front of it was a tablet. Tim wasn’t quite sure what the series of inputs users made were, but he had overheard that this was considered a simple new perk from the company. Tim and his fellow nanos were considered “Employee Relief Specialists” and the macro size employees of the ad agency were encouraged to “book time” in order to increase morale and reduce work related stress.

Of course in the weeks that he had been in this new position, he like many of the other nanos had sunk into a routine. Each of them was a favorite around the office for someone or other. Summer enjoyed checking out Rico to paint her nails while she took calls. Alice liked to check out Trevor to stick in her hair for scalp massages. Jessica liked to check out Megan to… well Tim thought Jessica just enjoyed sitting on the nano woman to hear her panic and squeal.

As for Tim, on the very first day he had seen Kayla’s gargantua form looming over the terrarium, like one might pick out a snack from a shelf. Her bored expression passed by the myriad of options before settling on Tim’s diminutive form. There was perhaps a moment of recognition, maybe a slight smirk, but otherwise she had wordlessly plucked him from the bunch, as she has for weeks since.

===

Tim was firmly in Kayla’s grasp as she strode through the ad agency’s halls. Her palm was sweaty and he was caught in the crook of her ring finger, held firmly in place. It was dark and it was humid, but it was the persistent swinging and nausea of walking with a giantess that Tim could never quite grow used to. That mixed with the anticipation of what had become an unfortunate routine.

Tim learned that Kayla had found a seldom used meeting room to act as her escape while in the office. A place where she could sit back, kick off her shoes, and idly while her time away on her phone after setting her status to “busy.” He gathered this was likely where she was every time he was messaging her and getting no response. In any case, he now joined her on these hours-long “breaks.”

Kayla slipped into the room, shutting the door behind her. Releasing her grip with apathetic abandon. Tim screamed as he fell what was the proportional distance of several stories, smacking into her Sperry-clad foot and bouncing onto the dirty carpet floor. His body ached and he struggled to stand. Whether due to his small size or nano physiology, falls like that did little more than knock the wind out of him, and Kayla couldn’t be bothered to simply place him down.

She was already looking at her phone as she began to kick her Sperry’s off. Tim ducked as one of the shoes fell sideways, opening facing him. Already gagging on the putrid, cheesy, aroma. Between the giantess’ black sock clad feet Tim trembled, it didn’t matter how many times he had been through this, it was unpleasant every time. 

Kayla had a preference for thick, woolen, black socks. She toed them off without really paying attention, and began to sit on the ground. As she stretched out her legs Tim ran as fast he could, barely keeping ahead of the massive soles approaching him. He knew it was futile, but survival instinct was a hard thing to shake.

When she came to settle Tim was cowering under the pale, creamy monolith’s of Kayla’s soles. They glistened with sweat and were covered in black fuzz from her socks. She wiggled her toes, bits of detritus, rained down on Tim from above. He stared up, hopelessness washing through him. It didn’t help much to resist, she’d broken him of that within the first few days. He had spent hours wedged between her toes within woolen black socks and her Sperry’s, gasping on choking pungent hair as foot sweat stung his eyes and filled his mouth. He had begged- no prayed for mercy.

During the whole ordeal not a word was exchanged, not a semblance of recognition between the two. She would present her feet and he would need to infer her wants. If he guessed wrong he was compressed between her toes for the rest of the day. Tim was a fast learner.

He took a breath to steady himself, it stunk of vinegar, and approached the behemoth feet. He could feel the heat emanating her soles, and could swear that an aura of foot sweat was already causing his eyes to sting. He reached out his small hands and firmly raked his fingers across the skin of her heel repeatedly. He then began to climb up her left foot, finding handholds and footholds in the wrinkles of her sole.

The work was hard, made all the worse by the thin, slippery sheen of sweat. He would find himself slipping and press himself hard to the surface, his face practically buried in her pungent sole as he regained his footing. During his ascent his breathing became shallower and more labored, and could taste the foot odor on his tongue. He breathed a small sigh of relief as he cleared the ball of her foot, more stable footing to come for him, when she decided to cross her legs. He didn’t know whether it was absentminded or malicious, but he was thrown to his stomach, desperately clinging to the grimy surface.

When her movements came to a standstill Tim continued his arduous work. Above him her toes wiggled, each dwarfing him in size. He made his way to the space between her second and third toe. He was greeted by masses of toejam in the pit of her toes and clinging to the sides. He began the process of removing them. Passing his hands over the surface, and pulling free bits of gunk. Some parts were fibrous, likely from her socks, others were goey and clung to his hands and skin.

From toe to toe he moved diligently, his back and arms burned, his skin was covered in sweat, both his own and hers. It was hard, shameful work. He had figured with a swipe of her fingers she could clear the toejam between her toes, but for him it was tens of minutes of backbreaking labor. He couldn’t bear to even send a glance towards her face, he simply kept his head down and focused on the work at hand.

At her whim he could be pressed between her toes, held firmly for a moment before release. He could be sent tumbling down the ball of her foot as she giggled at something on her phone, desperately trying to regain his footing to avoid the long climb again. He was a small, worthless figure, traversing beneath the toes of a goddess for small, thankless work.

He could feel anger, he could feel sorrow, but what would be the point? The next day he’d be in the same position again. Beneath her, how could he even resist?

As he cleared the gunk between her fourth and pinky toe he could feel every muscle ache. He looked up and saw her wiggling the toes of her right foot, she wouldn’t make it easy, he’d have to climb again, between her toes and to the ball of her right foot. He began to try and secure his movement when his shoulder gave out and he tumbled to the carpeted floor with an almost imperceptible thud.

He tried to right himself, struggling to his feet and looking up. Far across the room he saw Kayla staring at him, cold eyes behind her glasses. She reached out a hand for him, and Tim felt hot tears come to his own eyes. He cried and begged, professed his deepest apologies for falling. He prostrated himself before her, professing again and again his apologies, admiration, and in a desperate bid even his love for her.

Despite it all he found himself in her grasp again. Pinched between thumb and index finger firmly, Tim could hardly breath. She spread her right toes, giving Tim a view of the endless gunk he had yet to clean. She roughly shoved him under her toes, his face pressed in the gap between her second and third. He opened his mouth to take a deep breath of air and was rewarded with a salty mouth full of toe jam. His crying and begging continued as darkness descended around him, as pale, grimy toes entered the warm, suffocating cavern of her black woolen socks.

As her feet next slipped into her Sperry’s and Kayla continued along her day, Tim continued to scream into the void, being squished between unforgiving toes and beneath the colossal weight of his patron. He knew deep inside it was pointless, even if it was possible for her to hear him with this prison of flesh, footsweat, and toejam… she was his captor, why should she care. He had to accept the new reality of the situation, this was his new job, and she was his everything. “Next text”. Matt was a 24 year old nano, or rather he was 24 years old and currently a nano. Matt had spent most of his life growing the same as any other human until he contracted RCD, Rapid Cellular Degeneration, aka the Shrinking Disease. In his junior year of college he was forced to drop out and finish his education remotely, though this never bothered him, he had few real friends at school and relished the opportunity to study independently. With his (miniature) business degree in hand, Matt had found his career options limited, though his cold relationship with his parents pressured him to find some way to live independently. He accepted a stable, if not boring, data entry job that afforded him the ability to purchase a nano sized home in Chestnut Meadow, a quaint little nano community.
 
Matt had never been good at social contact, always a little awkward and much more happy in his bubble. While he maintained cordially relations with his neighbor Diego (before his unfortunate disappearance), Matt mostly stuck to himself, spending his time between work and video games. His days were mostly the same, providing a human eye to spot check databases prepared by machine learning algorithms, and in the evening, it was his time to binge streaming shows and video games. The young man had splurged on a gaming setup that allowed him to play competitive online games, despite his diminutive stature. The processing was all done remotely but his controls were an awkward and oversized rig, and the interface low resolution and low framerate, but he still managed to enjoy himself. It was through his favorite game Overwatch that Matt met Emily.
 
Matt had been an active part on a local gaming subreddit, always keener to interact online than in person. Matt and Emily hit it off almost right away.  They had begun to communicate regularly online before playing together, often responding to eachothers posts and sharing funny gifs and memes with each other. The girl was a similar age to Matt, working as a librarian after having graduated college, living alone in an apartment, and with a deep love for Overwatch. The two had similar tastes in media, with a proclivity to anime, and cheesy pulp fantasy books. She laughed at Matt’s awkward jokes, and he always seemed interested in just the right parts of her longwinded stories. Emily was a little awkward, like Matt, but this often presented itself in a socially tone deaf and forceful personality. Matt didn’t really mind though, Emily always seemed to know what she wanted, and he was happy to be the more passive member of their relationship.
 
It was in the middle of one of their gaming sessions that Emily was dominating the other team as the mech piloting tank hero D.Va as per usual and Matt was holding his own as the fast-skating support hero Lucio, healing and buffing D.Va as they pushed back the enemy. Suddenly, as if the thought was pulled straight from the air, Emily suggested that the two should actually meet, in person. The thought sent a cold chill down the nano’s spine. Though they had grown their friendship over months, Matt had always neglected to mention his condition, for all Emily knew he was a perfectly normal sized young man, not a pocket sized reflection of one. As they continued their conversation over text, Matt tried to come up with excuses, but Emily was nothing if not insistent. Finally, with a nervous shudder, Matt texted her the truth. He waited, his heart in his throat for what seemed like hours before Emily responded with a flurry of excitable texts and emojis. Matt was astounded to find that his friend’s interest in him only seemed to increase upon hearing about his condition.
 
The two planned to meet at a local Starbucks near the library where Emily worked, she would meet him when her shift was finished, and Matt arranged for a pickup from Boost, a crowdsourced nano transport app with trained and vetted individuals. As he was getting ready for their coffee date Matt nervously picked out an outfit that would be both casual and sensible, running potential conversation topics through his head, and fretting that her interest would drop dramatically once they actually met in person. His fears were assuaged, a little, by the pictures and memes that Emily was sending him throughout the day. Mangas exhibiting friendships (and relationships!) between humans and nanos, cute little pictures from DeviantArt exhibiting nanos and humans hanging out and engaging in mutual activities, and memes playing on stereotypes of nanos being excitable, silver-tongued, and tricky. On the last matter Matt couldn’t help but think he was nothing like the fey-like caricature of nanos that some spread online, and worried that perhaps Emily’s expectations would be too high.
 
As Matt’s Boost arrived he could see a huddle of Chestnut Meadow protestors in the community square. One nano was giving a speech about a miscarriage of justice. Matt barely made out Diego’s name, and though he wanted to stay and see what the hubbub was about, he definitely didn’t want to be late. His Boost courier was a young man who was quiet and courteous. The process was efficient with Matt entering a stabilized carrier designed by Wondertech, with its interior appearing similar to first class on an airplane (though about auditorium sized). Matt barely felt anything as his courier transported him to his vehicle. On the ride he spent his time watching the news on the large touchscreen adorning one wall. On CNN talking heads were discussing the rash of federal defunding to nano social programs, and the lack of federal enforcement for nano protection, under President Samantha Weaver’s administration.
 
The feed cut to the middle-aged blonde politician talking to an excited crowd. She was wearing a bright red ballcap that read KEEP AMERICA BIG, as did many in the rally. With an almost masterful level of oration that straddled colloquial and articulate, she explained that it was the job of the federal government, through the Bureau of Nano Affairs, to handle crimes related to the diminutive Americans. She also relayed her utter disgust with what she saw to be disloyalty in the Bureau’s ranks, in the form of nano-advocate Dr. Mary Vogel. President Weaver whipped the rally into a frenzy, explaining that as the head of the federal government she set the priority, not corrupt nano-baiter’s like Vogel. Quite frankly she saw the national focus on nano’s to be disproportionate to their size, and perhaps it was time they got used to a different reality.
 
Matt didn’t have time to finish seeing the speech before he arrived at the Starbucks. He pushed aside the uncomfortable scene he watched unfold. He had never been bold enough to have an opinion on politics, and frankly as a middle class nano in a nano community he felt far away from all those difficult topics that politicians and activists always talked about. Disappearances and trafficking happened to poor nanos who lived in government subsidized communities, and were done by shady people in trenchcoats and sunglasses, greasing civil worker palms to walk off with a carrier of unsuspecting nanos. Or at least that’s what he presumed from the way the local news talked about the subject.
 
His courier placed him on a table and Matt nervously awaited his friend. When he saw the giantess walk through the door his heart went aflutter, even faster as he saw the wide, excited smile come over her face. Emily was a human of average height, messy dark blonde hair running down her back in gently waves, pale blue eyes, and a pair of clunky glasses on her thin nose. She was still dressed in her clothes from work, a simple black t-shirt with a Hemingway quote, gray pants, and a beat up pair on converse. She wasn’t what one would call traditionally pretty with her slightly too big nose and subtle overbite, but she was cute, in a quirky way. Over her shoulder she had a satchel slung, with the strap adorned with a variety of buttons referencing different pop culture elements, only half of which Matt recognized.
 
Emily sat down quickly and tossed her bag to the floor. She began to happily chatter, cooing and awing over Matt. She poked and prodded with slightly sweaty, unpainted fingers, laughing as she did so. As Matt meekly tried to hold up his end of the conversation she rested her head in her hands and beamed down at her little friend, looking like a kid in a candy shop. Emily ordered a tea and a cookie, not really asking what Matt wanted, but the nano was familiar with her socially awkward ways. As she happily munched and talked, Matt was showered with a fine arraignment of crumbs, though he didn’t show any displeasure. He was just happy that it seemed Emily was happy with the way he turned out, their conversation was as easy going and reference filled as their previous online conversations. Suddenly with a start Emily realized that Matt hadn’t eaten anything, and looked down at her left pointer finger, smudged by a chocolate chip with a few crumbs clinging.
 
Cautiously she held her finger down to the nano and justified that it wouldn’t make sense for him to have a whole cookie at his size. Matt, not wanting to be rude or put off his friend, leaned forward and carefully pulled off a crumb, and chewed it thoughtfully. As her finger remained, and an expectant look upon her face, Matt used his hand to smear off some chocolate and eat that as well. She seemed pleased and urged him that he didn’t have to be shy, and that his hand probably couldn’t get all of it. Realizing what she meant, and with a little pit forming in his stomach, Matt leaned forward and licked the remaining chocolate off her finger, enjoying the sweet treat with a thin layer of sweat. Emily beamed, looking quite pleased, and Matt couldn’t help but feel relieved that he had made his friend happy.
 
After the two departed to their respective homes they continued their conversations, the same jokes, and references as usual. Matt’s head was abuzz with excitement. As awkward as their size difference was, this was his first genuine friendship in a long time. If he could admit it to himself, he actually found himself somewhat attracted to Emily. Perhaps because he was riding this wave of euphoria that he didn’t make much of Emily’s next messages as more than playful teasing. She sent him another DeviantArt picture, this time of a giantess D.Va stomping on a nano sized Lucio.
 
The next time Matt an Emily were supposed to meet at Emily’s apartment and play video games together, with the latter suggesting Super Smash Brothers. Matt wasn’t good at the game, and didn’t really care for it, but he decided to go along with it for Emily’s sake. This time he requested his Boost courier help transport his award gaming setup. It was in the process of waiting for the courier that Matt ran into his neighbor. The squat nano woman was in a huff and shoved a flyer into Matt’s hands before moving on to the next Chestnut Meadow resident. Two pictures were at the top, Diego he recognized, and a redheaded woman he didn’t. The text below was a call to action. Diego had been kidnapped at a baseball game, and it was only through an independent (nano-led) investigation that his captor was discovered to be the woman pictured. It seemed that federal agents were not only unwilling to press charges, they hadn’t even managed to secure Diego from the woman. Apparently she was arguing that their relationship was mutual and non-coerced, and agents were not even interviewing the nano.
 
Though Matt felt odd about the situation, he didn’t give it much credence. Nano activists were always looking for something to talk about, and though he could understand the current political rhetoric was heated, what was to say that Diego didn’t choose to have a relationship with that redheaded woman. Several months ago he couldn’t have imagined that he himself would be going to visit a giantess friend and play video games after all.
 
Emily’s studio apartment was decorated from floor to ceiling with references to all of the pop culture she enjoyed. Posters and figurines dedicated to video games, anime, comic books, novels, movies, and so much more. Matt was a little taken aback, as all this made Emily’s constant talk about the subjects seem almost understated. The giantess sat down on her bed, still wearing her work clothes, and permeating an aura of sweat. She placed Matt’s gaming rig on the ground aside her, explaining that the bed would be too bumpy, unless he wanted to risk ending up under her butt. Matt stammered at the thought which only elicited giggles from his titanic gaming partner.
 
The two began to play Smash with Matt awkwardly trying to learn the controls and characters. Partway through their gaming session Emily kicked off her beaten converse, revealing a pair of exceptionally worn lime green socks. Matt was accosted by the oppressive odor of cornchips and popcorn. Her right converse was on it’s side with it’s opening facing him. A literal heat seemed to radiate from the cavernous interior. Matt of course was too polite to say anything. Emily happily dangled her sock clad feet above the nano and felt particles rain down from the damp cloth onto and around him. The experience was uncomfortable but he didn’t want to risk upsetting Emily.
 
Soon Matt bowed out of gaming, his head swimming in a sea of foot odor, and a growing frustration at repeated losses. Emily happily switched over to Overwatch as Matt watched the big screen from the floor. Soon Emily was deep in conversation, her mouth partially agape and hunched over her controller. Her physical motions in life mimicked action in game as she gently jerked left, right, or forward with her digital avatar on screen. It was with one of these forward lurches that Matt suddenly noticed a shadow being cast over himself. The green canvas engulfed him in a flash, beneath the ball of Emily’s right foot and under her toes. The nano was smashed into the dirty carpet and struggled to find a pocket of air beneath the soaked fabric. He desperately gulped at the sour taste of vinegar and cheese as his friend continued her match. He released that she might not realize his predicament when she began to grind her foot with frustration. Matt could feel limbs contort as he was shoved beneath her pungent toes. As the match came to an end Emily sidled back onto her bed and her diminutive friend was suspended in the air, adhered to her worn, dirty, sock like a piece of lint.
 
Matt peeled himself free and fell to the carpet sputtering. Emily suddenly seemed to realize his state and gave a face a shock, uttering a dozen apologies. Matt put her at ease and told her that he was fine, though turning to his gaming rig he could not say the same about it. With a momentary lapse Emily had managed to reduce the machine to nothing but plastic splinters. She promised to buy him a new one though Matt continued to explain that he was fine and that was all that mattered. Suddenly, with a sort of uncharacteristically timid embarrassment Emily remarked that her feet must smell so bad from down there. Looking up Matt watched as she instinctually flexed and scrunched her sock clad toes. Matt knew that there were some guys that liked feet, and honestly that wasn’t really something he was interested in. All the same, perhaps to save his friend from embarrassment, he felt the need to put her at ease once again. He assured her that he didn’t mind the smell at all, and cautiously she lowered her right foot back down towards the miniscule man, questioning if he was sure. Matt made a show of shoving his face against the thing, damp fabric and taking an audible breath (though honestly he couldn’t be sure she could hear it). The odor brought a tear to Matt’s eye a cloying scent of cheese, vinegar, and the leathery interior of her converse. All the same, Emily seemed satisfied and her embarrassment faded.
 
Matt spent the rest of evening between Emily’s sock clad feet as she sat on the ground aside him, determinedly focused on her game. He would occasionally stroke the moist green fabric covering her soles, as if a reminder that he was there and content, though the action did cause some minor revulsion on his part. Back at home Matt began researching the cost of replacing his nano gaming rig, looking at it perhaps as an opportunity to upgrade his system. That night Emily sent him some article linked from Reddit, explaining some sort of link between nanos and feet. The (human) author explained that one of the physiological changes that nanos experienced was that they were no longer offput by the smell of feet and in some cases even came to like it. Apparently it was due to this many nanos had found careers in the massage and pedicure business (their size also serving as a boon). Matt was certainly skeptical over this claim, as he himself could certainly attest to how unpleasant it was to be surrounded in a cloud of foot funk, but he couldn’t bring himself to rain on Emily’s parade, and found himself feigning realization, and praising her detective skills. Emily sent back some pleased emojis and Matt chalked the night up to a win, how bad could a little white lie hurt.
 
With his gaming rig destroyed, and him saving up for a new one, Emily invited Matt over every other night, as a way to spend time together. She was growing more comfortable around Matt, and while he was grateful for that fact, he found that sometimes Emily’s understanding of social norms was a little off, especially with nano company. Over their weeks hanging out Matt was enjoying their banter and friendship growing, but also found himself becoming used to a whole different set of behaviors and norms.
 
Emily went from feeding him scraps of food on napkins placed upon the ground, to feeding him directly from her fingertips. She always seemed to take great joy in watching him eat, with Matt feeling a little like an animal in a zoo… or perhaps a pet even. Once, after losing several rounds of Overwatch Matt saw Emily grow a little irritable and short of temper. When he meekly requested she break up an Oreo a little more so that he could eat it the woman smashed the cookie with her bare foot, grinding the treat to crumbs between her grimy digits. She impatiently and pointedly asked if Matt was going to eat it now, and the nano wilting in her rage almost obediently started pulling crumbs and cream from between the pits of her toes. Almost immediately realizing her folly, Emily embarrassedly broke up another cookie for Matt by hand, though as she watched the nano eat Matt could see gears turning behind her eyes.
 
On the subject of her feet, Matt had grown almost uncomfortable accustomed to her titanic peds. The bi-nightly ritual almost invariably involved Emily kicking off her increasingly worn converse, and teasing her nano friend into peeling her socks off. She had grown convinced that nanos must enjoy the smell of feet, after all, why else would Matt not complain about his normal position during their hangouts. Emily enjoyed playing with Matt between her feet, always seeming to come up with some sort of new and playful game. She would poke and prod him as he made dumb jokes and threaten to squish him when he made a particularly cheesy joke. Sometimes she would pretend to begin the process of squishing him by placing her moist sole, slowly onto the nano, pressing him into the carpet. As he would squirm upwards to escape she would wiggle her toes, delighting in the sensation of the helpless young man continuing to struggle. For Matt’s part he would always play along, but in these weeks he had grown increasingly familiar with Emily’s particularly over-warm and over-sweaty feet. With the frequency of these games he was certain that he could map out every callous, cut, and wrinkle of those pale expanses. At this point the overpowering odor of her feet had been invariably tied in his mind with their hangout sessions. He had a subtle suspicion that after her “epiphany” several weeks ago about nanos and feet she had been deliberately neglecting her foot care. Crusty socks and grime between her toes seemed to attest to that at least.
 
At home, the pictures and memes that Emily sent him were increasingly nano and foot focused. She sent him doodles of the toe of them with her gaming and he playfully struggling under her foot. She had suggested he read some romantic manga depicting a relationship between a normal sized human princess and a nano sized male courtier, it seemed to draw some inspiration from Cinderella, though with a theme about her courtier fitting her foot rather than a glass slipper. It was odd, but Emily was enthusiastic, and Matt in a lovestruck way took the suggestion of a romantic manga as an indication of her growing affection.
 
Matt would passively follow Diego’s case on TV, everyone seemed to have an opinion. While the anti-nano political wing had managed to twist the narrative into their opponents’ hypocritical stance on human-nano relationships, the pro-nano wing argued that the justice system was failing to protect nanos from abuse and dehumanization. Matt couldn’t help but scoff at the idea of humans dehumanizing nanos, his own friendship with Emily should have been a testament to how normal their relationships could be. For whatever reason Diego’s case had sparked this odd national conversation. Even when reading a reddit thread about the Princess/Nano manga Matt saw comments arguing that the book was “problematic” for fetishizing nanos and playing on falsehoods and stereotypes. As he tended to do, Matt processed those statements in his own peculiar way, finding himself strangely pleased at the idea of Emily seeing him as a little courtly suitor. Matt managed to catch the tail end of a speech by Dr. Mary Vogel, the bookish, redhead, in her early 30s who happened to be the head of the Burea of Nano Affairs. He saw her try and impress upon a crowd that nano-human relationships were possible if they were consensual, and it was more important than ever to ensure that both parties had equal footing. Matt tuned out the political drama, after all he was more concerned with initiating a relationship than considering its political implications.
 
After one hangout session Emily boldly suggested that Matt move in with her, it wasn’t as if he was really involved with the community at Chestnut Meadow anyway. Honestly, Matt felt a pang of uncertainty, he did like having his own space, but he realized that with this request Emily was asking to take their relationship from friendship to something more. They sealed the deal with a kiss and wrapped in the warm, pillowy embrace of those lips, Matt would have agreed to just about anything.  
 
Matt never really said goodbye to his neighbors, with the current climate, too embarrassed to admit that he was moving in with his human girlfriend. Living with Emily was a lot like having their hangouts 23/7, with his only break from the giantess being while she was working at the library and he on his data entry. It had started as a joke perhaps but in those early nights Matt found himself sleeping in one of Emily’s converse with a sock shoved in afterwards. Emily had been worried about accidently rolling onto him and suffocating and someway they had segued into the idea of her pungent foot odor being” comforting” to the nano. As with all of Emily’ enthusiastic suggestions, Matt went along with it. He found that sealed in a dark, humid tomb only intensified the smell he had grown so used to. However, seeing Emily’s beaming face as she freed him each morning always prompted him to return a cheeky grin, and a feigned sense of gratitude.
 
In his positon as boyfriend Matt had also found that during Emily’s nightly game sessions he had graduated from the position of occasional plaything to dutiful toe picker. As she joked and played Overwatch Matt found himself played with between her sweaty digits as he set about the hard work of cleaning the accumulated muck and filth for a day crammed in ill-fitting converse. By the end of this exercise he was uncertain if the layer of sweat that covered him was his own or Emily’s. All the same, she seemed to elicit great satisfaction from the task, cooing and praising his nimble skill and aptitude for foot based hygiene.
 
On the subject of food, Emily was unfortunately forgetful. Not wanting to be a both Matt would often either go without or subside on crumbs that his giantess beau had clumsily scattered. He had noticed now, more than before, that Emily wasn’t one to maintain a particularly clean living space. She often scattered her clothes on the floor and left food wrappings lying about. It had become a daily occurrence for Matt to trek over discarded sweaty shirts and piles of sweat crusted socks. Still he was hopelessly in love with Emily and all it took was a smile, coo, or one of those all-encompassing kisses to make him forget any negative thought.
 
The Oreo incident had a reoccurrence with Emily smashing a cookie between sweaty toes, except this time she dared Matt to eat the contents from between her digits. Never failing to please his beloved, Matt made a show of happily eating the grime encrusted crumbs. Emily scrunched her nose and laughed, but must of have just chalked it up to the nano’s unique physiology. She soon lost interest and turned back to gaming but her spread toes signaled to Matt to finish the job. He continued to dutifully choke on the mixture of cookie and toe jam, reticent to disappoint.
 
Before long Matt quit his data entry job, after all they had only really paid in nano scrip which was only really good in nano communities anyway. He started going to work with Emily. She would carry him in her pocket and whisper her long winded stories to him during the day, and Matt was always happy to be the center of her attention. She would play similar games to home where Matt would find himself in her converse as she playfully slid damp, sock clad toes in and out, alternatively trapping him in a humid prison with five excited wardens, or teasing him with fresh air. Upon research Emily had found out about nano’s unique invulnerability and had been keen to test this by stepping on Matt of course, of which her boyfriend was too to oblige. Once again, a playful suggestion that turned into a norm… Matt found himself accompanying Emily to work from with the confines of her converse, alternatively underneath her sock clad foot or within the sock and immediately beneath her damp toes and wrinkled soles. Matt had a first class seat to the daily accumulation of dirt and grime, and Emily delighted in playing with him throughout the day.
 
Weeks passed and soon the two had settled into the predictable routines of relationship. On one night, as she was wont to do, Emily laid on her stomach playing Overwatch with her soles facing upwards. Matt dutifully wandered the surface of the creamy, wrinkled expanses, digging between creases and pits of her toes to extricate the salty findings which he greedily gobbled. He honestly couldn’t be certain how that routine had even started, but he knew he had to get sustenance where he could. He could feel the giantess’ toes twitch as she let out a sigh of frustration. With all the strength he straddled her second toe and massage ball of her foot, and was relieved to hear her next sigh be one of pleased relaxation. For his hard work she scrunched her long digits, temporarily encasing him in an oven of warm foot flesh before sending him to topple across the bottoms of her toes again.
 
When it was time for bed Matt knew that he would head into her socks and be pressed against the underside of her toes and soles as she slept. As they had agreed, this was a good compromise between sleeping in her converse and being able to sleep with her. When morning came he would be pressed against her wrinkled soles and within her converse as she worked. As she had complimented him, he was better than any orthopedic insole because he knew just which parts to support, and with the added bonus that he could massage her feet all day. At home while Emily gamed Matt would keep her company and work between her toes, listening to her stories, watching her game, or watch some new television series or anime. Matt always relished being the center of her attention, living for her laughs at his jokes, and her fawning adoration. As Matt continued to knead her calloused soles, cringing slightly as he basked in humid odor of cheese and vinegar that wafted from the surface, he couldn’t help but think how fortunate he was to have found Emily. Who would have thought that a human and nano could have found love? “Next text”. Mike was a nano. He had contracted RCD while in High School, and though initially worried his life would change forever, his caring mother did her best to maintain a sense of normality for her miniscule son. Through hard work and studies Mike was accepted into the Bookworm Program, a program by which nanos such as himself could attend a University. Dreaming of being the first nano to run for office, Mike studied hard. 
Ines was a French foreign exchange student. She had come to the US to earn her degree in sociology but during her stay she had become enamored with the people and culture. Perhaps the greatest for her were nanos, the tiny people were a rarity in France but much more common in the US. 
While walking to the library one day Ines spotted a wayward nano seemingly separated from his caretaker. Mike had indeed been separated from his school assigned helper for the past few hours, carefully wandering and avoiding the giants all around him. As he continued to try and gather himself a shadow descended above him. A short haired brunette goddess towered above his fragile form, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses but a smirk appearing gradually. 
Mike had little time to even process the sudden development as a wall of flesh appeared above him. He could only gape in awe at the wrinkled, dirty expanse. Before he could run the wall came crashing down on his figure. He yelped in pain as he felt the crack of his left arm shattering. He desperately scratched at the bottom of the girl’s toes. Ines giggled as she battered the nano, grinding his head and limbs between her first and second digit. 
Mike desperately grabbed onto the sturdy side of her pink toe ring gasping as he was flung into the air. Ines sat back on a nearby bench wiggling her toes. Mike slammed against her rough skin time and again, clutching his broken arm to his chest. The air hung steadily with the almost overwhelming odor of sweat and cornchips. Ines did not let up her playful struggle with the little nano, fascinated by the being hanging desperately to her feet. 
Mike found himself straddling the gap between her big toe and second, barely holding on for the sweat that had formed, and gagging on the putrid, vinegary aroma. He looked to the giantess’s face, desperate for release but instead it illicted another giggle and scrunch of her digits. Mike yelped in pain as she compressed him into the gap between her toes, bending him forward until he was staring down the great expanse of her soles.  
Nearly as soon as her interest in him had begun, Ines had grown bored. Baring mind towards the nano that was crippled and twitching on the ball of her foot, she slipped her feet back into her flipflops. Mike was compressed between the rubbery sole and sour flesh. With each step he could hear his body crunching and giving way, as a mixture of dirt and sweat filled his eyes, ears, and mouth. 

Caught with just enough light from above, Mike could make out the uncaring goddesses face as she condensed him into toe jam. He could only think in his final moments, drowning in a sea of sweat, he had wanted to be something great. “Next text”. Ever since hMRV (Human Metamorphic Retrovirus) aka, the “Shrinking Syndrome” started afflicting people, there seemed to be more falsehoods being spread than facts. Despite the Center for Disease Control’s best efforts, it seemed that every day there were new articles being published that were based in nothing but conjecture and imagination. “Nanos are actually no smarter than goldfish, they just know how to repeat words and phrases.” “You can spread MRV through toilet seats!” “If prepared properly Nanos have great health benefits.” The Burea of Nano Affairs had tried it’s best to stem the flow of misinformation in order to help the growing nano population but unfortunately it seems that lies tend to travel much faster than the truth.
 
Rachel had only ever remembered being raised by her father, Dan, her mother had passed away when she was very young. Her dad though had managed to be a bastion of hope and positive thinking. Though Rachel would poke fun at her dad’s cheery optimism she really didn’t know what she would do without him. When her father first contracted MRV Rachel didn’t waste a moment, the 27 year old software developer went on sabbatical from her job and moved back home to take care of him until they could figure out a permanent solution. It was only a few short months later when by happenstance Rachel herself contracted the mysterious ailment. Her dad never let her worry for a moment, he assured her that they would be alright, a cure would be on its way soon, and they would be fine in the meantime.
 
Enter Julie. Julie was Rachel’s aunt, a woman she had only remembered meeting twice in her life, both times when she was very young. Her father and his sister did not talk regularly, the last time perhaps being when their parents had passed several years prior. Dan and his sister had never been particularly close, he was a firm believer in facts and positive thinking, whereas Julie seemed to live on Facebook groups parroting whatever panicked facts she found for the day, peeling back the layers of lies from the government, medical industry, and everyone else. Fate though seemed to be bringing these two siblings back together, with no other living family Dan had asked Julie to act as guardian for he and his daughter until other arrangements could be made.
 
The first weeks with Julie had been tolerable. She seemed to listen to Dan’s instructions and try and provide as comfortable experience as she could for her brother and niece. Julie lived on her own in an apartment, she worked as a human resources administrator for a tech company, and what time she spent at home was normally absentmindedly clicking through Facebook. The checks she received from the BNA for the care of two nanos were certainly a boon to her, and though at first she put the money aside for its intended purpose, she soon found ways to… cut corners.
 
Rather than listen to Dan and purchase the custom, albeit expensive, furniture and living facilities designed for nanos Julie decided the two would be just as happy living in one of her old shoe boxes. They had a hamster bowls for water and food, and a small pile of bedding to… do their business. Julie was soon deaf to Dan and Rachel’s protests, after all she was their caretaker and knew best. Meanwhile she was enjoying spending her money on the things that interested her, healing crystals, organic wines, and lots of incense.
 
From there Julie started to chime in with different things she read about nanos. “Oh Dan, you shouldn’t have vaccinated Rachel, that’s how MRV spreads!” “Nanos actually have very powerful healing abilities, which can be activated through massage.” “Some people believe that nanos are supposed to be a symbiotic evolution to help us normal humans live happy and healthy lives.” 
Soon came the nightly ritual of giving Julie her “reflexology” massages. While the titaness aunt sat at her desk her two nanos would lay under her calloused soles, working through every wrinkle and crevice. Unfortunately for them Julie was a believer in a more natural way of living, she showered infrequently, and did not seem to care for her feet beyond the work her diminutive captives put in.
 
Every night as Rachel worked the tendons of her aunt’s soles she would fight back tears. The cloying smell of cheese and vinegar was fresh from a long day in constraining shoes. The dry calloused soles cut into Rachel’s face and arms but she knew better by now than to protest. Julie was often rather forgetful of the two nanos under her gargantuan feet. As she focused on her Facebook stories she would rock back and forth in her chair. Her expansive soles would come down completely on Rachel’s body, pressing her into the carpeted floor. The nano woman’s screams would be muffled by sour flesh as she found herself incapable of even moving. When Julie rocked back Rachel would find herself suspended in the air, affixed to her Aunt’s sole by a thin sheen of sweat and grime.
 
The day came however when Julie was tired of having to wait until home to get her massages. She began tossing little Dan and Rachel into her tight work shoes every day before slipping in her sockless soles. If Rachel found the nightly massages to be intolerable, this was hell itself. For eight hours a day Rachel was pressed into her aunt’s meaty soles. She could barely even move within her prison of flesh and leather, forced to succumb to the crushing punishment of each step, and to gasp for breath in the humid atmosphere. As sweat began to stream from her tormentor Rachel was forced to alternate between finding pockets of air to stave off drowning in the foul river, and choking past mouthfuls to quench her thirst. It was a torturous existence.
 
Over time Rachel could see these routines taking a toll on her poor father. He would rarely speak, he had grown gaunt and tired, and his eyes seemed permanently fixed on some far off space. Gone was the cheery optimism Rachel had looked for in Dan, gone was any indication that this had once been a man and not just Julie’s obedient plaything. Still, obedience could not save Dan from what would come next.
Julie had been babbling to the nanos in their shoebox about something else she had read, something new about the restorative benefits of nanos. Rachel was barely paying attention to the giantess’ words, simply being in the presence of her aunt filled her immense panic and it was all the teenager could do to sit in place with her arms wrapped around her legs. It wasn’t until Julie plucked the screaming Dan that Rachel realized that something was wrong, her father had not so much as let out a protest in weeks, let alone a scream. From within her shoebox Rachel looked on in horror as her aunt poured honey all over her microsized father. Rachel could just make out the squeaks of her father’s protests. “Please Julie, please don’t do this! You’re wrong! You’re wrong!” The protests did not dissuade the giantess as she placed the nano in her cavernous maw and just as quickly swallowed him whole.
 
Rachel didn’t know how long it had been since her father’s demise. Julie had done away with the shoebox, the water in a cup, and any other semblance of humanity that the young woman had left. She spent all her time under Julie’s soles or between her toes. Her days were spent squeezed into those too tight shoes, clinging between the toes of her titaness aunt at home, and pressed against those expansive feet within Julie’s socks each night. Her aunt had read (or authored, Rachel really couldn’t remember which) an article on caring for nanos. Apparently the diminutives could subsist solely on the products of ones feet, and they were happiest in their natural state, under the soles of their betters.
Rachel barely remembered what it was like to be human, it all felt like some distant dream. One day while subsisting in the giantesses work shoes Rachel could feel the foot retreat from its encasement, and Rachel along with it.  The girl was greeted with harsh sunlight and a gentle breeze. The adhesive sweat released Rachel as she tumbled to pavement below. The giantess wiggled her toes above the nano, showering her with an assortment of sand, dirt, and toejam. Looking around the vast environment Rachel put two and two together, they were in her aunt’s office, likely her aunt’s lunch break, and the giantess was just airing her toes out for a bit. The odd thought crossed Rachel’s mind that if not for MRV she would likely be at work, enjoying lunch, and maybe puzzling over a peculiar programming problem in the company of her friends, never imaging the type of fate she was currently enslaved to.
 
“Lunchtime!” Julie announced happily as she lowered her sole towards her nano. Rachel cowered in fear but knew there was no avoiding her fate. Rachel knew what her goddess wanted. With as much a show of obedience and devotion as she could muster Rachel gingerly chewed on her aunt’s calloused soles. The giantess seemed satisfies as she went back to eating her sandwich, wolfishly watching the nano under her sole diligently at work. Nowadays Rachel knew never to protest and to agree with any statement or edict Julie might say. Rachel thought rather pessimistically, if she didn’t do her best Julie might find better ideas for lunch than just a sandwich. “Next text”. Dr. Luke Boyd nervously ran his fingers along the plastic tabletop, feeling the telltale grooves and layers of the 3D printed furniture. It wasn’t unfamiliar, the government rarely expended more than they needed to on their more… diminutive civil workers, as much as his boss might otherwise insist they should. The truth was Luke didn’t much mind, he was just happy for his position. Many nanos had difficulty finding employment, he was fortunate enough to have continued his career from when he numbered among the macro-Americans, as a researcher. Rather ironically, a nano researcher.
 
The minuscule PhD was roused from his thoughts of government funded furniture by several more giants entering the room. It was a rather cozy meeting room by macro standards with a large rectangular meeting table in the center surrounded by several chairs. Luke’s own 3D printed table and chair were seated in front of one seat. At the head of the room was a large television baring the static seal of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
 
Luke watched the shuffle of giants throughout the room. Though he did have some familiarity working among the more vertically endowed, he still felt small pangs of anxiety when feeling surrounded. The room was a veritable whos who of the nano community in government and business. There was the Secretary of Health and Human Services Andy Akers, a bald man with a salt and pepper beard and a pair of stylish turtleshell framed glasses. The Secretary did not seem to hide his dissatisfaction or his impatience. There was Nate Cooper, acting CEO of Wonder Technologies… since the unfortunate disappearance of their nano-American founder Annie Sinclair. He was a lanky African-American man with a jovial aura, and someone whom Luke had the pleasure of meeting with in the past. Nate scanned the table until he made eye contact with Luke and gave a curt nod and a smile.
 
Another woman entered the room, a brunette with her hair tied back in a bun, tall with piercing blue eyes. She wore a navy jacket with the letters BNA in bold yellow type face on the left handside of her chest. She approached a seat at the table and lowered her cupped hands. Luke was surprised to see a Nano jump down. He was tall (for a nano) and lanky, auburn hair and stubble. He wore a white button down rolled up and a loose tie. Though a casual appearance Luke could tell by the fine stitching and nano sized features that these clothes weren’t cheap, by comparison his own clothing with too large stitching and odd sizing was more similar to doll’s clothes. His companion set down a nano sized seat to which the nano gave a gracious nod and sat. He took out what appeared to be a cigar before his partner shot him a stern look, to which he responded with an annoyed headshake and put it away…
 
Luke barely had time process this new oddity before another pairing entered the room, this time two giantesses. The first in he immediately recognized. Emilia Watts, billionaire technology investor, media darling, and internet sensation. Though others in the room tensed she gave off a practiced aura of nonchalance, flashing a red lipsticked smile and a, “How’s it hanging?” in her native Australian accent. Behind Emilia was a young green-eyed brunette, her tied back in a loose ponytail, and a tablet hugged to her chest. Luke was rather surprised when Emilia took a seat to his left and even moreso when her companion took the seat right beside him. Before he could turn to say something she had dropped her tablet to the table, sending the nano, his table, and chair tumbling. She must’ve heard his startled squeak as she glanced down with sudden realization.
 
“Oh,” was all she exclaimed, eyeing Luke as he got his feet and tried to adjust his chair.
“Sorry,” he apologized, though not knowing why. “I was actually saving that seat for-“
 
“It’s fine,” the woman responded curtly, cutting him off, before turning her attention to Emilia who was introducing herself to Nate. Luke didn’t try to protest further, his ego was a little bruised but at the end of the day he didn’t feel like making a scene. He figured it would be better to present the picture of professionalism, especially among potential future colleagues. Now there just appeared to be one person missing…
 
Dr. Mary Vogel, Luke’s boss and Deputy Secretary of the Bureau of Nano Affairs came barging into the room in a fuss. Her tablet, books, and papers hugged to her chest as index cards and sticky notes trailed in her wake. The petite, bookish, ginger gave profuse apologies for her lateness as she scurried to the head of the room.  
 
“That is fine Dr. Vogel,” Secretary Akers responded, in a tone that made it clear that it was very much not fine. “Can we please get started?” He took look down at his very expensive watch. “I do have other places to be today.” Mary bashfully nodded as she caught her breath and gathered herself. She scanned the table and spotted Luke, to which the nano shot her an affectionate smile and a nod.
 
Mary cast a presentation from her tablet to the television, replacing the Department seal with a variety of pictures and graphs which she began to manipulate.
 
“Alright, so, um, we’re here to discuss the future department objectives of the Bureau and our industry partnerships with um, Wonder Technologies,” she gestured to Nate, “and our potential new partnership with Nanoworx,” gesturing to Emilia. She shuffled through her digital slide deck. “So after months of discussion we have opted to change our strategy towards nano-Americans. While previously we have sought a policy of prevention and cure for hMRV-“
 
“What is MRV?” Secretary Akers asked, annoyed. “Are you referring to RCD?”
 
“Sorry sir,” Mary blurted. “Human Metamorphic Retrovirus or hMRV or MRV-“ Akers shot her an annoyed expression. “-is the actual name of the condition that causes the transformation to a nano-human state as he refer to it. RCD has always been a bit of a misnomer, a colloquialism that caught on early. Rapid Cellular Degeneration is actually just an early symptom, just like calling MRV the shrinking dis-“
 
“Alright Dr. Vogel, carry on, we didn’t come here for a science lesson.” Akers interjected, waving his hand.
 
The Nanoworx attache behind Luke was jotting something down on her tablet with an e-pen, hastily scribbling. The scraping sound of plastic on glass was probably much more evident to the nano than his larger colleagues. He couldn’t help but notice as he glanced to his side that the brunette had a habit of chewing on one end of the pen, malforming the plastic with indents of her molars. While little quirks like that probably went unseen by macro-humans, nanos always seemed to have front row seats.
 
“Unfortunately, our research into vaccinations and treatments has been less than fruitful. They have served as temporary measures at best… and at this time there is no known reversion however. However we have also found that susceptibility to MRV is likely genetic, something present in around 2% of the population-“
 
Akers interrupted yet again, “2%!” he scoffed. “This is exactly why President Weaver does not want to devote as much time and money as we have on these issues. The scare is over! It’s time to go back to focusing on what effects the normal sized 98%.”
 
“Secretary Akers,” Nate spoke up. “The correct term is macro-human, not “normal.” As I’m sure Dr. Vogel will explain, one of our new objectives is integrating nanos within the fabric of American society.”
 
“And you charge quite a lot for that don’t ya,” Emilia laughed, somewhat mockingly.
 
Meanwhile Luke was dealing with the new frustration of the Nanoworx attache tapping her checked pen tip almost directly beside his chair. Eyeing the molar imprints up close only caused a new swell of anxiety, as he estimated that his head could fit quite neatly within one. He couldn’t help but darkly consider the idea of his skull between two unyielding walls of enamel…
 
“Nano health services and accommodations are quite specialized and unique,” Mary piped up. She flashed to a slide that showed what appeared to be a nano with several cutaways. “We have found in our studies of nano-human anatomy that there are a number of changes beyond the apparent. They have a distributed central nervous system, what appears to be remarkable cellular regeneration even to the point of re-growing limbs, some sort of pheromonal ability-“
 
“What does this have to do with making houses and getting nanos work?” Akers demanded.
 
“I’m just trying to explain that the amount of money that goes into research and development for nanos is more than just clothes and electronics,” Mary pleaded. “In fact the way that this metamorphosis has developed… it doesn’t seem natural frankly. How can humans be the only mammals susceptible to this kind of metamorphosis… it honestly seems-“
 
“For the last time Dr. Vogel, we don’t need your continued exposition.” Akers bluntly stated. “Our guest’s do not have time to waste,” he gestured at Emilia. Nate just gave a bemused smirk. “So please, let’s just get to the parts that everyone is waiting for.”
 
“Ah Andy let’s be fair, you know Nanoworx loves to research too,” Emilia laughed. “We’re not exactly some back-alley operation. You wouldn’t have been an angel investor otherwise.” This statement seemed to catch Mary off guard, but she didn’t show it for more than a moment. Nate’s bemusement on the other hand slowly shifted to irritation. “Part of why we came was actually to try and pick your brains and get some of this knowledge back to Nanoworx. We know you’ve had a great relationship with Wondertech to this point.” Emilia gestured to her companion, “Dr. Julie Jordan over here is one of our resident post-docs in feasibility studies.”
 
“A pleasure to meet you all,” Juilie smiles and waved before letting her pen hand come down with a thud behind Luke causing him to jump a little in his seat.
 
“Oh,” Dr. Vogel exclaimed. “Well, in front of Dr. Jordan is Dr. Luke Boyd, he has been one of my primary researches and contacts with Wondertech.” Luke suddenly felt rather uncomfortable as the gazes of the Nanoworx pair and Secretary Akers seemed to finally rest on him for more than a moment. Making brief eye contact with the Secretary, Luke was uncertain he detected a note of… disgust, in his expression.
 
“That brings us to our next point Dr. Vogel,” Akers turned attention away from Luke. After discussion with Emilia and Dr. Jordan, we thought it might be useful for Luke-“
 
“Dr. Boyd,” Mary gently corrected with a smile. Luke felt at the same time overwhelming gratitude and embarrassment.
 
“Dr. Boyd. Excuse me,” Akers repeated slowly, as if tasting the words in his mouth. “We believed it would be beneficial for him to transfer from his post at the BNA to spend time working at Nanoworx as our industrial contact. Perhaps in a more direct way than he has done with Wondertech.” Mary opened her mouth as if to protest. “The arrangements have already been made with HR Dr. Vogel. I apologize for not consulting you, but you understand that time is limited. Besides, it should be a great way for the na- Dr. Boyd, to ingratiate ourselves with our new industrial partner.”
 
The rest of the meeting passed rather quickly, Luke didn’t catch much of it. His heart was beating so fast that all he could really here was the sound of blood pooling in his ears. As the giants stood to say their goodbyes at the end, Luke was startled to feel a hand on his shoulder. It was the other nano. He smelled vaguely of tobacco and had a stern expression on his face. He spoke low, a level only another nano could pick up, “Eyes up, ears to the ground.”  “W-what,” Luke stammered.
 “Look at me,” the other nano grunted. “You’re being sent up the beanstalk if you catch my meaning. Do what it takes, and keep your goddamn eyes open.” He shot a look up at Akers and Watts, “Not a lot of friends above the three inches but we do what we need to do, and make due with the allies we have. I wanted more time to talk but that’s not going to happen. We’ll talk soon and I hope you’ll have plenty to talk about.”
 
Things moved quicker again. A goodbye from Mary trying to hold back tears, Nate with barely concealed anger, and before he knew it he was in a nano carrier headed to Nanoworx, considering what type of research he would be conducting in feasibility studies…
 
 
Pinned. Luke didn’t even have the energy to be embarrassed or frustrated anymore. Julie’s pinky toe rested atop his bruised and battered frame and through no exertion on her part, she had the nano pinned to the underside of her fragrant toes. He had an arm between two other toes, partially trapped by the good doctors own choice, but he attempted to use the opportunity pull himself backwards. As much as he tried, he could simply not extricate himself from below the smallest digit on his tormentor’s foot.
 
The radiating heat from the soft surface and slightly moist slick of sweat had made Luke’s predicament more than a constant annoyance. No matter how many weeks? months? he still had not grown used to his condition, or to the wafting odor emanating from Dr. Jordan’s pale soles. Like pungent cornships on a tolerable day, and acrid vinegar on less than tolerable days. The smell made his head swim, and her warm feet only added to the sauna like atmosphere beneath the casual grip of her toes. It was resting on an overly warm mattress. He could feel his diminutive form pressed into slightly yielding skin, with her toe exerting an uncomfortable amount of pressure. At the same time he felt his legs neatly wedged into the gap beneath her toe, as he clung so that his upper body may remain upright. It had taken practice but he had learned to some degree how to navigate. He was almost certain the soreness in his arms and upper body were from the excessive use of muscles he had previously neglected.
 
He could hear the rhythmic, tip tap of Julie on her phone. She had never been the most attentive colleague, content to occasionally insure that Dr. Boyd was at his station. She wiggled her toes, likely absentmindedly. Luke gave out a muffled squeak as he felt the air compressed from his chest. His neck craned back to see her other cross foot. Titanic toes, each as large as himself, if not taller, all swayed. In between his bouts of pain he admired the neatly cut, unpainted toes, his own work of course.
 
Luke’s introduction to Nanoworx had been about as brusque as his initial introduction to Dr. Jordan herself. Emilia had quickly lost interest in their new BNA contact, and had simply ensured that the post-doc had the situation handled. Of course Luke tried to take this new assignment seriously, but he quickly learned how… different Nanoworx was from Wondertech.
 
Nanoworx seemed to have a particular focus on finding a place for nanos to fit culturally and economically. They seemed to abide by data analytics trends and had determined that there could be a symbiotic relationship between nanos and macros in the economy. Of course to Nanoworx, the service industry seemed to be calling to nanos, particularly the service of macros. It was here that Luke discovered what exactly Nanoworx was studying the feasibility of.
 
At first it seemed that Julie was content to let Luke make his observations with some of their less secretive projects. At first some of it even seemed to make a little sense. He observed  a nano back massage experiment, taking observations from both nano masseurs and the macro client. From there things got… odd.
 
A macro blond happily held her mouth open as Luke peered inside from his elevated. A warm, minty, gust of wind washed over him. He held back a shudder as he eyed her dangling uvula, massive teeth, and monster of a tongue. Near the macro’s back molar’s, in the twilight darkness of her maw, Luke could make out a diminutive nano girl dressed in nothing but a bathing suit. She was on her knees on the massive red tongue, a pool of bubbling saliva up to her armits, strings of which clung to her arms and chest. Her hair hung in moist clumps, clinging to her forehead and cheeks, as she grunted and huffed. One hand fished clumps of food from between the macro’s teeth, while the other hung limply at her side, compressed and, for the moment, useless.
 
The blonde macro closed her mouth and went to lean back in her chair. For a last fleeting moment, Luke made eye contact with the nano tooth cleaner as she was enveloped in darkness. The blonde spit a long trail of saliva into the sink next to her, though the nano presumably remained in place. “Saw-ee,” the macro started. “I’m a lil drooly.”
 
Dr. Jordan had of course assured him that all nano participants were well compensated and their safety considered in all product tests. For the teeth cleaning project she had remarked about how effective nanos could be in the dentist’s office, and in fact how much better compensated they could be for professional work. Nano’s unique regenerative abilities and durability ensured that risk was minimal and of course there would be an attending macro dentist. She made a slight joke about birds cleaning a crocodile’s teeth. When Luke tried to press further Julie seemed to lose interest, in fact as his time at Nanoworx went on she seemed to confer with him less and less.
 
It seemed that Nanoworx was not just involved in the business of oral hygiene. Over time Dr. Jordan seemed to direct Luke towards the podiatry feasibility studies. He had assumed perhaps more massages. Though the idea of nanos massaging massive peds had made Luke queasy he didn’t think it too outlandish. What he found though was not quite what he expected.
 
The whirring of the treadmill stopped and the metallic scent of sweat hung in the air. The macro sized brunette stomped off the treadmill and toed off her runners. She fished inside to pull out two dirt and sweat stained blue insoles, positively steaming between the accumulated sweat and heat. She dropped the insoles to the floor. From his position Luke watched in horror as nanos freed themselves from the molds in the insole. It appeared to be three on each. They moved slowly and stiffly, partially flattened. One blond nano girl, crawled on her hands and knees across one insole to an empty mold from which nano had risen. Almost on instinct Luke went to her side  and was met with a wide eyed looked of horror as she stammered, “T-T-Tom.”
 
“Oh yah they felt fine at first, they were wiggling a bit,” the brunette runner chattered to the attending researcher. “They got pretty still after a while. I feel like they could have done more like during the end of the run and definitely at the end, that’s like when you want it most.”
 
“Excuse me,” Luke called up towards the runner.
 
“Huh,” she heard the squeak and peered down. “Looking to redeem yourself little guy?” She angled her dirty neon yellow sock over Luke. He recoiled as he was slammed with a cloud of cloying, warm, cloud of sweat carrying a distinctive odor or rubber and cheese. He began to gag but his fit was cut short by the sight above him. Amidst the sweat stained imprint of the runner’s soles and toes in the thing sock, and various bits of lint, was a nano practically crushed and embedded in the fabric. Freed from the ground he began to twitch, at least to the point where the runner could feel him.
 
“Oh shit,” she exclaimed as he dragged her sock-clad foot backwards across the ground, leaving a crumpled mess of a nano in it’s wake. The blonde nano that had been searching the insole came rushing to the side of the pitiful creature, cradling his face in her hands as he coughed and sputtered. “Is he gonna be able to go again?” the runner turned her question to the researcher.
 
The researcher simply shrugged, “They regenerate quickly, only reason we can do this. Just stick him in the slot. Probably a good test case for mishaps on longer runs anyway.” The runner smiled and knelt down picking up the crumpled nano and fitting him back into his slot. Whether she heard the squeaks of protest from his tiny blonde companion, Luke could not say, regardless Luke watched the blonde be placed back into her own slot. Before long the sweat stained blue insoles were back in the runners and the brunette was jogging along happily, headphones in her ears.
 
Luke should’ve assumed at some point he would cross the other side of the observation. Perhaps it was wishful thinking that his academic credentials, his government job, or even his plain protestations would prevent it, but alas… For what it was worth, Julie never stuck him with the other “volunteers.” She considered the work they did to be completely academic in nature, at first she just referred to them as knowledge sharing sessions, or a chance for personal observation.
 
Luke could hardly say that it started innocently enough, perhaps Dr. Jordan had simply grown bored with being a passive observer. Pressure tests at first. Luke found himself struggling and gasping for air as the researcher slowly compressed him under her soft, warm, soles. He could question her methodology. No notes were taken, no sensors or measurements. She had simply placed him on the carpet and kicked off her worn Toms canvas slip-ons. Luke had watch, stunned, as she spread her toes, bits of lint and dirt, evident between the pale digits. He didn’t have long to dwell on the thought before he found himself getting up close and personal.
 
For pressure tests to insole studies. It was a sensible transition. Once the boundaries of regenerative capability and durability were established, it only made sense to attempt practical applications. Luke protested, he fought back, and struggled but it was no use against a macro. He found himself getting familiar with her Toms, quite apparently her favorite shoes. Her footprint worn into the sole like a constant reminder and an ever permeating aroma of foot funk. It took trial and error but Luke find a somewhat tolerable position under her toes. As she didn’t express her dissatisfaction with more compression or squeezing, Luke could only presume this was also to Julie’s satisfaction.
 
Of course anyone could get a static insole. The job of a nano insole was quite clear and Julie expressed as much. It wasn’t long before Luke was dutifully licking between her toes and massaging the tender flesh at the ball of her foot. In her Toms or under her toes while her soles were propped up on her desk. Luke did what he had to do. When he did something well it was met with little more than a slight wiggle or satisfied hum. When he displeased her, through action or inaction, the consequences were more aggressive. It was through a careful application of the scientific method that Luke discovered that Julie enjoyed gentle kisses on the undersides of her toes, she enjoyed him licking the sweat and grime from the pits of her toes,  and of course a consistent caressing of the balls of her feet.
 

It was only in thinking in such terms that Luke felt he could retain a scrap of his being. Eyes up and ears down, careful observation and application of the scientific method. A preferable alternative to thinking of this as… training. Of course he did know that Dr. Jordan was always dutifully preparing white papers for internal presentations on her feasibility studies. He grimly wondered if he could get a co-authorship on the one concerning nano insoles. After all, it would be a professional courtesy. “Next text”. Emma had contracted Rapid Cellular Degeneration at 18 years, old only 2 months after her high school graduation. It was a disease otherwise known as the Shrinking Virus, at least colloquially. Those transformed by the peculiar condition came to be known as nanos. From the time that her first symptoms began to show, it was only a few short days until she was less than one inch tall. As the doctor had explained, those in the age cohort of 21-35 seemed to be most susceptible to the condition, it seemed that Emma had just been an early bloomer. While Emma’s friends prepared to head off to college and new adventures, Emma found that her world had gotten much, much smaller. Due to a lack of accommodations (and as Emma suspected a case of discrimination) Emma had her college acceptance revoked, and soon found herself trapped in a mire of depression.  
 
In the face of all this adversity her mother Jane continued to dote on her diminutive daughter. She made sure Emma wanted for nothing, and that she felt as comfortable as she could be in her new body. Even on her meager salary Jane worked overtime so that she could afford to purchase nano accessories for Emma through the company Wondertech: a proportional living space, specially designed food packets, clothing, electronics, etc. More importantly than the material goods, Jane was always there to be a shoulder to cry on (and a rather large one at that!). She listened to her daughter’s frustrations and concerns, and offered advice where she could, and slowly Emma’s outlook brightened. As a silver lining in the dark storm cloud of her condition, Emma and her mother grew much closer. When she felt that everybody else had abandoned her, Emma knew that she had her mother, who always treated her as a person with love and respect.
 
Two years later, Jane died in a car accident, struck by a drunk driver. The now twenty year old Emma was technically an adult, but as a nano she had little means to care for herself. She never knew her father, and had no close family except for her mother’s sister, Tammy. Though Jane and Tammy had been close in their youth as adults they had grown apart, Emma barely knew her Aunt aside from distant memories from when she was a child. Rather than be remanded to care by the state, Emma chose to take her chances and get to know her aunt.
 
When Emma reached out her Aunt Tammy seemed open to caring for her, though as Emma soon learned Tammy was very different from her late mother. Where Jane had been kind, compassionate, and loving, Tammy was drunken, forgetful, and rather apathetic. She didn’t seem to dislike Emma, but rather she couldn’t seem bothered to care. It started with forgetting to gather Emma’s belongings from the old apartment she shared with her mother, in doing so Emma lost not only her Wondertech accessories but also her mother’s material possessions. Living in a shoebox in those early days, Emma would go without food for some time, and learned to ration, as her Aunt often forgot to feed her during her drunken binges. Tammy was single, middle aged, and fortunate enough to live off of rental properties passed down from her parents (properties for which Jane had been wholly passed up on in favor of the favorite Tammy). Her days consisted of chatting idly with friends on the phone or in person, and consuming an inordinate amount of mixed drinks.
 
When Tammy did deign to pay attention to Emma it was mostly with drunken curiosity, and giddy amusement. It started with slurred suggestions, and a bit of manhandling, but Emma found that every few nights she would be spending “girl time” with her titanic aunt. Fumbling with a massive nail polish brush as she struggled paint her Aunt Tammy’s toenails in the garish pink she enjoyed… Feebly trying to knead her calloused soles in a pathetic attempt at a foot massage… Perhaps worst of all was dutifully using chunks of a foot file to work away at the callouses and dry skin that formed along Tammy’s titanic soles. All of these were temporary exercises in amusement for Tammy, and had started as only a temporary reprieve from boredom for Emma… before it became her permanent hell.
 
Tammy for the most part forgot about her fragile niece struggling to survive underneath her gargantuan soles. When she did remember about the pathetic nano she wouldn’t offer more than a drunken giggle, or if she was feeling merciful, a few crumbs of food. For three years Emma desperately clung to the undersides of her Aunt’s toes. The days of shoeboxes and infrequent feeding was over, now she was trapped in a prison of sweaty flesh, toejam, and putrid odor, a marginally better fate than the lethal world all around. For her part, Tammy never forced Emma into this position. As the initial novelty of caring for her nano niece wore away, she simply stopped caring, and finding the tiny young woman crammed between her toes had just been another temporary amusement.
 
It was a hot summer day and Tammy had sought to enjoy it in the local park, her feet up on a bench, and a rum and coke in her hand. She was pleasantly buzzed, enjoying the calm breeze, birds chirping, and the sun beaming down from above, content to blissfully forget about the world. Emma was having quite a different day. Two years prior Emma would have been incredulous at the thought of herself trapped between her Aunt’s toes as they wiggled in the summer sun, but now it was just a fact of reality for the 23 year old nano. Beads of sweat formed along the expanse of Tammy’s soles, and the humid pits between her toes. The lubrication allowed Emma greater movement, as she dragged herself out from between Tammy’s third and fourth toe, crawling along the ball of the giantess’ sole, beneath the shadow of her toes. The overwhelming odor cheese and vinegar still brought tears to Emma’s eyes though she knew the odor also permeated her own skin and hair. She was as much a part of this hellish environment as Tammy’s callouses.
 
As the droplets of sweat continued to form Emma greedily slurped them up, barely managing to choke back her gags from the taste of salt and vinegar, but grateful for her thirst to be quenched. Tammy’s toes managed to seal her midsection, not even through action from her apathetic Aunt but rather just the force of her toes at rest, and the adhering power of the toe jam which covered her body and face. Emma felt her body racked with familiar hunger pangs as she spotted the gray morsels of toe jam between Tammy’s second and third toes. The young woman’s face flushed with shame as she realized her gurgling stomach and salivation at the sight of something to fill her belly.
 
She desperately reached, feeling her ribs burn with pain as she was extricated the fresh gray goop from between her Aunt’s toes. Emma greedily crammed the mass into her mouth, gagging repeatedly before managing to swallow. She saw Tammy’s gaze pass over her as she completed the disgusting act, the giantess slightly angling her sole as she took a long sip from her drink. However she seemed nonplussed, not empathetic, nor disgusted, nor even amused. As unsurprised as if to see a squirrel eating an acorn in the park, or perhaps a bug crawling through the grass. She soon lost interest in Emma yet again and gave a drunken smile upwards towards the sun as she wiggled her toes in the breeze. Emma felt her body twist and contort to Tammy’s whims, shoving her deeper into position beneath the titaness’ towering toes.
 
Emma could only kiss the sweaty flesh of Tammy’s sole, a desperate plea of mercy to the uncaring goddess. A plea of mercy for the forgotten.