I probably should have taken a look at this review in more detail before I wrote the bodily functions chapter haha! I now understand the frusturation of seeing a great idea and then being like, "I should've thought of that!" I love the idea of someone peeing into a tiny pool while the tiny men are sitting on the edges, watching! That could maybe be worked into a later chapter. For the last one I really wanted to take a field trip to the changeroom to set up chapter 10 so the pool wouldn't have really worked for that one. Hmm, I'm going to have to find a place for that :) I may end up tweaking chapter 8 a little to work in some more descriptive colours because you're definitely right, it's those little details that really make a difference. Luckily for Ms. Johnson, she hadn't swallowed any tiny men before this lesson so no digested bodies were spotted on the way out haha. I actually kinda like that idea (as cruel as it is) though! Seeing a skull after being digested is one thing, but seeing them emerge from a giant anus would be another for sure. I would be lying  if I said I wasn't taking a little inspiration from some of the Magic School Bus episodes lol. It's actually interesting how much giantess-related stuff there was on that show!

And I completely understand what you mean by things being "rather harsh". Ultimately it's there to create a massive contrast with the tiny students and just for entertainment value. I do have a rough idea for what the "endgame" is for disposables and it's sort of a combination between the cruelness that we've seen and heard about already and just simply humiliating someone and maybe not treating the disposable "as well" as someone's personal tiny. This has been sort of hinted at during Ms. Johnson's and Alexis' conversation about who got the tiny man that was left in the changeroom. Sounds like Shelby is pretty cruel and doesn't care about disposables because they're not worth caring about, where others are much more caring towards them and make them last a lot longer before something ultimately goes wrong and they die. Ms. Johnson is an interesting character in this regard because we've seen that she's overhauled her house to make it "tiny friendly" but we've also seen what happens when she gets lost in the moment while playing with disposables. You're absolutely on the right track with "who" gets shrunken though. My thinking (same as yours) was that people who are "off the grid" and really have very little connection to society would be prime candidates for shrinking. All that's needed is some excuse. Where others who may be connected to society but committed an unforgiveable crime are also prime candidates since the backlash would be next to nothing. And as the story continues, I think we'll see that disposables aren't just instantly killed and disposed off by the women they'd handed off to. Some girls might take pleasure in that, where others just want one for a little fun here and there but don't want it to be a one night thing and then he's gone (like Ms. Johnson, who has allowed some tiny men to stay in her home for months at a time). And we do also know that regrowing technology definitely exists. The disposable tiny world is complex but this is certainly by design. We've sort of been introduced to the worst that could possibly happen (perhaps as a scare tactic for the newbies?). Maybe it was a poor strategy but I sort of liked the idea of throwing everything on the table in the first 10 chapters, and then sort of reeling in back in and exploring all the in-betweens later. Guantanamo Bay though... good luck to those types of disposables lol. And I do really like the punishment idea for those who committed a pretty serious crime but maybe don't deserve insta-death lol. I think we're really close in our mindset for how the disposables should play out so we'll see what becomes of them :)

That's a great suggestion of switching between POVs. I tried to do this a little in chapter 8 so we'll see how that turned out and then keep building off that. Appreciate the advice though!

I completely agree that Troy is character who needs to be approached carefully since he has so much to potentially contribute to the plot of the story. I'm still working out the details of this but your theory of him stealing something of importance (maybe without even realizing it) is definitely on the right track. In a way his character is sort of like a red herring since he's (I think) the only disposable we've met that didn't commit a horrible crime. Jett (the strong black man who robbed the convenience store) hinted that his roberry "went south", meaning that he probably did something really bad to end up shrunken. Two others comitted rape, murder, and espionage. Raises some interesting questions about Troy and makes everyone think, "hmm, are they shrinking people for petty crimes?" :) I'm not familiar with "The Borrowers" but after googling it, I need to watch it haha. I actually have a few ideas that might overlap a bit with that movie.

I'm very glad to hear that you're enjoying it so far! I do really appreciate the thoughtful questions, theories, and suggestions! They ultimately make me think about things that I may have brushed over and strengthens the story :) We'll see how it all unfolds!

I'm curious, do you happen to be working in the field of law and ethics? I took a course on legal studies as part of my program and the way you word things is very meticulous and sounds like something a person in law would say haha. And I can definitely see that you're intested in the legalities of a story like this which is great! Pokes me with some interesting questions to think about :) I enjoy the difficult questions too though. They're often the ones that are connected to the big plot points. They make the plot stronger too.

These chapters (and the next one, chapter 9) are all sort of meant to be the calm before the storm of chapter 10 lol. Right now the boys are cruising along, learning some interesting and sexy things about women, planning on how to spy on girls, with really no knowledge of the world of disposables. That'll change though. And very quickly. Class willingness is an interesting thing. Early on I'm hoping that it came across that the boys were excited but nervous by the idea of being tiny around Ms. Johnson and Alexis. So they were pretty hesitant to volunteer. Now everyone's starting to warm up and interact with Ms. Johnson more. As we saw with the reckless Chase brothers, they were pretty eager to volunteer. Everyone else is getting there but still pretty hesitant considering that Ms. Johnson is clearly a lot bigger and stronger than they are. Eventually they'll be convinced that Ms. Johnson knows what she's doing and that it's highly unlikely they'll be injured by her (yet stilll possible considering how small they are). Chapter 10 might shake things up a little though.

The process of shrinking is an interesting one for sure. I have a pretty rough idea in my mind but I'm not sure if we'll really cover it in depth in this story. I've got a few meaningful conversations planned between some major characters that I think I'll use to cover the basics of what I'm thinking but a separate story which focuses on that side of the world is really needed I think. Definitely don't plan on ignoring it in this story though, just not sure how in depth we'll see it go. The boys are going to learn about the disposable side of the world pretty soon and it's going to really get their minds thinking. Then it's up to those they ask on whether or not they want to share that sort of information with them. Witholding information is a pretty powerful writing tool though and I do plan on using it (especially if I know the answer and have a plan of sharing later). Especially if the reader can sort of assemble the puzzle pieces while the characters are asking questions.

To sort of give you some more context, I'll maybe start by giving a bit of background on why and how I got to the idea of introducing disposables. I know we spoke a little about the history of hanging in the last review but I think this will give a little more depth... Have you ever read the book "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"? My 5th or 6th grade teacher read that book to us and it was a really powerful story that still sticks in my mind. I still sort of wonder if I was too young to read a story like that but it made a lasting impact on me and opened my eyes to just how cruel the world can be. Anyways, it's a Holocaust story (fictional but obviously based on truth) where a Nazi officer's son befriends a Jew who's imprisoned in a concentration camp. At the end of the story, the Nazi's son is mistaken for a Jew and is taken to the gas chamber where he and his Jewish friend are both killed. I'm pretty sure that my idea for disposables in the story I'm writing is loosely based on that book and just manifested after years and years of subconsciously thinking about it.

It starts by asking the question, what if instead of Jewish people, really really bad, evil people (who actually deserved to be there) were the ones forced to the concentration camps, and instead of gas chambers, they were shrinking chambers. I know that opens up ethical questions of "is anyone really deserving of that?" but if you're thinking from the perspective of a mother who's young daughter was violently raped by a man, your answer would likely be yes, that man doesn't deserve a second chance. So we now have this picture where deserving people are being taken out of society (making the world a safer place) and shrunken down to serve a purpose (acting as playthings). Seems like a win win and that's currently where we are in the story. Pretty much every disposable we've be introduced to fits this description (they're all really bad people and it doesn't take much digging to figure that out). But the world is not a perfect place (as we saw in that book). Occasionally mistakes are made but what are the consequences of those mistakes? That's sort of where Troy comes in and where a spinoff story would come in. Troy obviously comitted a crime but the question then becomes, well what justifies being shrunken? And in the sequel we'd probably see someone who didn't commit a crime, yet is on the verge (or has been) shrunken and classified as a disposable. The system right now is pretty good though, they usually don't get it wrong (like 99.9% of time they're going to get it right and these are the disposables we'll see). It's only once in a blue moon they get it wrong. But we're just starting to teeter towards "oh man, everyone wants a tiny man, we need to start shrinking people, anyone." That's where the grey area forms and things get interesting. Even disregarding the story I'm writing, I find it fascinating to think about "why" we justifed doing cruel, horrible things in history (concentration camps, hangings, etc) and what would it look like if those actions were actually justifiable. Incentives make everything more interesting and complex (running out of jail capacity, there's a huge demand to do it, etc). I hope my comments on the Holocaust book don't come across as weird or cringey. It was more to ask the question, "what would it look like if the camps were used for actually deserving people?" I think people have even posed the question, "what if the camps were used for the Nazis instead of the Jews?" It's an interesting question with huge ethical implications. But I also don't want to paint Ms. Johnson and other women as "Nazis" lol. Certainly not and far far from it. As far as they know, they're doing the world a favour and getting some fun out it is just a bonus (and 99.9% of the time they actually are doing the world a favour because deserving people are nearly always the ones who are shrunken, and that's probably all we'll see in this story).

So getting to your question, at the moment the people in charge of shrinking are sort of like how the Nazis were, they're bascially judge, jury, and executioner. As we saw with Troy, he didn't get much say. At least not that he can remember. As far as he's concerned, he was shrunk almost immediately (he can only remember being in jail for a few hours) and didn't even get a trial. Now what I have in mind (which answers your second question), there would be a unique trial process for those who are in the "grey" area. Didn't rape a child for example so it's not just totally cut and dry, but he also did a crime. So is he worthy of being shrunken? Well we need to figure that out. And that's where things like tiny man demand, capacity, etc would all bias the results. I picture a complex process being simplified by those in charge because they're feeling the heat from the outside world. The fact that humans are far from perfect decision makers is an interesting idea to explore. So yes, suspended sentances could very well be a possiblility.

I'm still looking into the best way for you to contact me but I have a few ideas :) I'd love to hear what you're thinking! Stay tuned, I'll probably announce something in the end chapter notes of Chapter 9 next weekend.

Thanks for the questions!

Ah, finally getting a chance to sit down and respond to all the review. The last two weeks have been so busy with school. Hoping that this week is going to be a big week of writing!

Gatlin is a fun character indeed! I sort of picture him as being the kid who girls always liked because he's so sweet, kind, and innocent but he's not quite on their level yet. He doesn't even really know just how much he likes girls. He's just happy to hang out with Noah, play his video games, and worry about who's stealing all the gumballs. Midterms are going to be a wakeup call for Gatlin.

Let's just say Alexis can be persuasive lol. Even though she's always been kind and gentle with the boys, they still see the fierceness in her eyes and that's so intimidating to a young boy. Hot, but intimidating. And yep! That quick scene with Liam was pretty great haha. I do have a bit of a plan to bring that full circle... in a way. Almost full circle I guess you could say?

That's good to know there's a discord server! I'm not really familar with discord but I've heard of it. I still like this review method as well but it sounds like there are a few people who would rather share their thoughts and ideas through a more direct instant messaging program. So I'm still looking into what might work best on my end as an alternative (but not a substitute) to the review method. Thanks for the review as always!

I'm so glad you decided to leave me a review! And no worries about which chapter you leave the review on, I always try to answer all outstanding reviews prior to posting a new chapter. I absolutely love what you said and asked because as I've been writing and planning things, there have been sooo many moments where I've thought, "that would make an awesome spinoff, or that one, or that one!" As we build up the world, there are so many interesting perspectives that could be explored. I only wish I had an infinite amount of time to plan and write all of my ideas down haha! Anyways, onto your questions... I can confirm that yes, female criminals are also shrunk and dealt with like the males. In chapter 6 there is a reason Ms. Johnson was sent an entire box of males. One reason being that, because Ms. Johnson is a straight woman, naturally she finds playing with tiny men more fun. There is another (probably much more subtle reason that I'm hoping you won't be able to guess) reason though that we'll learn about later on in the story. The remaining questions you asked are much more complicated. I love these questions though because they challenge me to try and get them right! Really, these questions need their own story to fully answer and explore. I do want to answer these questions but I think I'm going to leave them sort of floating in the air and as the story moves along we might get a few natural hints that answer some of them. Depending on how soon I'm able to get to the end of this story (and we're still a long way off), I would really like to write spinoffs using this world. What I will say is that, yes, there is always someone at the other end of the technology who makes the decision to shrink someone. But it's quite a bit different than just walking up to someone in the street and shrinking them. Controlled is probably a good word to use here and you can probably make some assumptions off that. Like anything though, mistakes are definitely made. However, it often becomes challenging to appeal something when you're only an inch or two tall and you don't usually (if ever) know you're going to be shrunk as a criminal. You can only really assume that you will be, and that's only if you've actually heard that that's what happens. At this point in the world, there are a lot of grey areas. Who gets shrunk and who doesn't? What level of crime do you have to commit to be shrunk? Who actually knows about it and/or wants to put a stop to it? We'll sort of learn that people justify calling them disposables because as far as they know, they're horrible people. We sort of see this in the way Ms. Johnson speaks to them. Ms. Johnson isn't stupid though. Far from it. I take some inspiration from the death penalty and hanging that used to be done. Not because of the way people were killed but rather the motives behind doing it. Why did people even hang other people back in the day? Because they felt that was a worthy penalty for what they had done. Shrinking is sort of similar to that, with a little bit more. It's justifiable because people don't feel they're worthy to the world other than as tiny disposables. But then add on that governments wanted to free up jail space and save money. Then add on another level where the wealthy are willing to spend a lot of money on obtaining these tiny men because they're simply just plain fun. Justifying the existance of tiny disposables becomes easier and easier. At a point it becomes normal and they just blend into the world. That's sort of the beginning of everyone's motives, all of which have been scattered throughout the first 6 chapters. What point are we currently at? Well that requires either another story or a lot more chapters of this one :) I hope this sort of starts to answer your questions. I feel like I have answers to all your questions, but I really need to have them fleshed out in a story to be able to truly answer them and show what I mean. If you decide to leave another review in the future, please do let me know what you think of everything I just said! I'd love to be able to really chat this out and get your thoughts! I was really just thinking out loud in this response haha.

I also agree that Troy is an interesting character! I have a few different ideas for where I'm thinking his character could go, I'm just undecided on what path we'll pursue hehe. I'm not expecting him to become a main character in this story, but we will definitely see him again! Thanks for your review!

I'm glad you still enjoyed this chapter! I agree with you, the start of this chapter was amazing haha. When I was writing chapter 5 (the female anatomy chapter) I was like, there's no way I "can't" not do that follow-up scene haha. It had the perfect setup.

You have some very good questions here! This review response might end up being more for me than it is for you haha. So first of all, hearing. As we know, abiding by the laws of nature and physics is rather... sucky when it comes to stories like these lol. Realistically, a tiny man of this size probably wouldn't even be able to hear anything normal humans are saying (frequencies), let alone speak with any real volume. So I've simplified things and assumed that for the most part, their bodies behave pretty much as if they were normally sized, with maybe a few minor changes (eating, pee volume, etc). So when it comes to hearing, I'm picturing being trapped in panties (but not inserted into her) would be sort of like covering yourself with a really heavy bed comforter. So already sounds on the other side of the fabric are pretty muffled. But have you ever tried moving around (even just a little) while hiding under your comforter? It gets rustling in your ears and hearing things gets even harder. Same principle as that, where being trapped in someone's panties would be like being trapped under a constantly moving comforter. You could probably make out a few things but it's really hard (a few things... hint hint). Now if we imagine him being trapped inside of her vagina, we have several layers of "stuff" impairing his hearing. Plus, he's likely also listening to a steady thump thump of her heart beating and everything else that her body is doing (since he's pretty close to it all by this point). The vaginal entrance also makes an airtight seal (more on this in the story later), so hearing things while inside a vagina would be very very difficult, and I sort of hinted at this while Noah was inside Ms. Johnson.

The other big question you asked involves the timeline of shrinking tech and how many people are actually shrinking and being shipped around. Very good questions, and these are questions that I'm still working on the details to, but think I have enough to share the big picture so you can sort of see where my thinking is at. So we know that 10 years ago the world was brought to its knees by a deadly virus. Not a shrinking virus like in other stories, just a nasty bug. And we also know that about 2/3 of a year after, a cure was found and was beginning to be distributed. But the cure also unlocked a secret to developing what we now know is the shrinking tech and chapter 1 hints that Ms. Johnson joined this cause shortly after the discovery was made. Flash forward 5 years and we see Ms. Johnson experimenting with the tech and hinting at celebrities just starting to obtain tiny men for their own pleasures. So by 5 years, the tech is well on it's way to turning criminals into disposables (this is sort of the beginning of not growing them back to normal size since before they were more for testing purposes where now people have discovered a very real purpose for them and word is spreading). Flash forward another 5 years and we're to present day. In chapter 2 we see Ms. Johnson hinting to her class that they may or may not have heard the stories of criminals disappearing, hinting that some of the public isn't oblivious to what's going on anymore and explains why people are so much more careful about being lawful and crime rates are plummeting (as Ms. Johnson said in chapter 6). Chapter 6 also hints that the demand for tiny men has skyrocketed and that many people actually do know about them. We're going to see some big examples for how disposables are used in the world (there are spoilers that I think will be more fun for you to read). Ms. Johnson says they're still in the early days because in a sense they are. Boys are just begininng to be taught about them in school and much of the population doesn't actually know about them yet. I think when we take a trip to the big city we'll shine a little more light on this and see who knows and who maybe doesn't. So why don't the boys know about tiny men? Well there are hints at the end of chapter 1 that the parents all know. And like any parent, they want to shield their children from stuff like that for as long as they can. Plus telling someone that tiny men exist sounds pretty crazy if you haven't seen them before (and seeing is believing). So how many are being shipped around the world? Great question because chapter 6 is meant to be sort of deceiving. 50 new men is a big package (and only for very special occasions, isn't always this big, but there are reasons this one is). Ms. Johnson is special because she played a big role in developing the tech (hints to this in chapters 1 and 6 and maybe others). And just like how big time share holders in big tech companies get to play with new toys first (referencing the real world, not just this story), so does Ms. Johnson. There's also a reason "weathly" has been mentioned a few times in the story. Do the girls at school each have a tiny man in their possessison? That's sort of a trick question that may or may not be what you're expecting. Hope this helps :)

I can't answer how many she brings to school or who is in that terrarium. You're going to have to wait and find out later! There have been a few subtle hints that sort of point to big chapters later in the story. And big (at least in my mind it'll hopefully be like "whoa!") reveals.

You're right, Alexis does drop a few names. We've met Shelby both on the bus and when she was leaving the changeroom. But Sadie and Alycia are both new, though we've been near one of them a few times before already. This is just setting up something that will be happening soon :)

But yes, Seb is still inside her lol. Hint to that when she said he'd probably come out later. Definitely very dead though haha. That Seb scene was sort of meant to pay off that hint Ms. Johnson made when she was telling her students not to go exploring inside there or else you'll get sucked in lol.

Like I said in my chapter end notes, this chapter was a pretty big experiment and sort of morphed as I went along. The main points I wanted to hit was introducing Ms. Johnson's tiny-proof home, introducing disposables, foreshadowing a few big chapters to come, and then getting a few of my "fun interaction" scenes down in words (that toilet one, Seb's ass scene, and Clayton's sex scene). I wasn't sure what sort of response I would get to introudcing disposables this way and sort of personalizing it. I ended up going this route because it introudces Troy who now was able to give an interesting perspective. Showing things from Ms. Johnson's POV in this chapter would've been almost too easy and boring. Troy certainly isn't going to take the place as a main character, but his story isn't quite finished yet either. Death or not is still up in the air though :)

Appreciate the detailed review as always!

Thanks V!

Thank you very much! I appreciate you taking the time to pass along your kind words! I look forward to hearing your thoughts when you've had an opportunity to catch up. I have so many ideas and plans for this story that I wish I was able to type faster and for longer haha! I'm always looking to improve though, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions I'd love to hear them. Glad you're along for the journey!

Awesome! I know that feeling of watiting for something to be released and then being super excited when it is. I'm glad that I've been able to incite that feeling as well! And oh yes, there will be plenty of unaware scenes by the time I've had my way with this story :) This story is shaping up to be 40+ chapters long and I have so many ideas for ways unaware scenes could be used! We got a small taste of it with that Ashley scene but we're going to see some more in the next chapter for sure. Then I have a few chapter ideas that follow this theme almost exclusively. Love the suggestion, thanks!

Thank you! I think you're going to find the disposable tinies very interesting. We've only seen brief moments with them so far but I think they'll really add an interesting element once we start to learn a little more about them.

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying it so far! Even though the lesson on female anatomy is probably the most highly anticipated, I'm hoping to get it checked off sooner than later because there's so much that will be coming after it. Plus, I think Ms. Johnson realizes that her class probably feels the same way so rather than keeping everything to herself so it might be more beneficial if the boys can see everything first and then learn about all the finer points later. I did know that the majority of young men are completely lost when it comes to the female body and that was ultimately the inspiration for this story. I did also know that there is always majority confusion with just how many holes are down there but I hadn't heard that some boys think that girls pee from their butts haha! I mean it makes sense though, why else would girls sit to pee? I do plan on including a scene where Ms. Johnson explains, "this is where the vagina, this is where girls pee from, and this is where girls poop from," but I'll definitely keep that specific misconception in mind when I write that chapter! I also like the speculum idea! Maybe we'll have to take the boys on a field trip to the gynecologist some day... All great points and suggestions. Watersports is definitely in the list of tags for a reason :) I think you'll find the chapter "Bodily Functions" to be right up your alley (that chapter will be coming at some point in the future). I would say fearless is an excellent word to use to describe Ms. Johnson, though there are reasons behind her madness haha. Once we learn a little more about the world I think it'll help explain her motives. Nonetheless, she is certainly a brave one! That video you saw actually sounds pretty interesting. I did a fair bit of reading myself in preparation for that scene and I found similar things as you. I read about a group of scientists who swallowed hairless shrews (I think) whole and then inspected their waste over the coming days. They said that they had been able to digest the majority of the animal with only a few small bone fragments remaining. They also mentioned that they found that the skull had been badly beaten, just as the tiny man's skull had been during its trip through Alexis. So in my mind, I pictured the tiny man's body being completely (or at least mostly) dissolved and only a few major bones surviving (barely). We certainly haven't seen the end of tinies slipping down throats though :) Thanks for your review and your suggestions! I absolutely love reading thought-out reviews like these!