When you’re shrunken down in your own home, what exactly is there to do? As nice as it was for me to be able to shrink down my own belongings - including my laptop and phone, battery life was limited when I couldn’t plug into an outlet 24 times bigger than the plugs. And if I chose to not shrink those items to enjoy the novelty of using a phone the size of a TV and a tablet as large as a movie screen, both were clunky and difficult to use due to my scale. So when I couldn’t do anything like gaming or browsing the net anymore in my doll house, what else could I do to pass the time?
As much as I enjoyed a good book or exercising, I wasn’t in the mood for reading that day and Lori and I hadn’t figured out how to shrink my weights yet without risking breaking the machine. In the end, my body ended up wandering out of the dollhouse aimlessly.
Normally, walking around in boredom typically led to me heading over to the fridge and checking what was inside before closing it without taking anything. It was a bad habit both Lori and I had for some reason. However, I ended up kicking that habit because, due to my tiny scale, by the time I realized my body was on autopilot, I was only outside of the doll house rather than in the kitchen.
“I figured something smelled…” When I got out, I found myself staring at a pair of sweaty feet. Lori’s left foot was pressed against the roof of the doll house while her right one was flat on the ground directly in front of me. My big sister was at her desk doing who-knows-what far above me. From the sweat dripping down her skin and the shorts and sports bra she was wearing, she must have come back from exercising.
Creak!
The dollhouse groaned as my big sister stretched, causing her left foot to shove the dollhouse even further into the wall. I was glad I had walked out or I would've experienced a sudden earthquake.
“Ngyaa~h! I think I jogged for too long. My legs are so sore,” I heard her complain.
Thud! Thud!
“Whoa!”
To my surprise, the building sized feet of my older sister moved. Her right foot switched places with her left foot as she stretched once more. I was nearly kicked when Lori’s right foot lifted up off the ground. If I didn’t lean back, I would’ve licked the sweat drop that had been sticking to her big toe. Sadly, I didn’t avoid it completely as, after I fell back onto the carpet, a separate bead of sweat dripped off the sole of her foot and landed right on my face, splashing like a water balloon upon impact.
Splash!
“Gak! Bleck!” Being splashed in the face with Lori’s foot sweat was more of a wake up call than I needed for a lazy Saturday morning. It was so salty that I closed my eyes tightly to rub it off my face. Sadly, it wasn’t just salt water that had dropped on me. Because Lori had been out running earlier, she had been wearing her socks and shoes. Whatever dirt and lint that clung to her foot after she had taken them off had been collected by the sweat bead before it dripped off. I was spreading that over my face too as I rubbed.
“... Damn that Annie. To think I’d have to work right after my workout. Why’d she have to call me on a Saturday? This is her project. I’m way too nice to that girl,” Lori’s complaints continued until I finally recovered. To have been incapacitated by a single bead of my sister’s sweat, if she knew, Lori would definitely poke fun at me for it. I was a little grateful that she didn’t realize I was outside of the doll house.
“Guess I should get her attention, though, if I want to do anything today.” Unfortunately, I knew that I’d have to get her to realize if I wanted to leave the room. I had been meaning to tell Lori to leave the door at least somewhat ajar so I could leave the room when I was shrunken, but I hadn’t yet. She typically locked her room out of habit because she didn’t want to have anyone touch the lab equipment she sometimes brought home for work.
“Darn. The output’s still not as strong as it was when we had it in the lab. Is it a power issue? I don’t want to unplug Aunt Shelly’s device just to test ours. Recalibrating that thing’s a pain.”
I could hear Lori talk to herself as she worked. It was impressive how she could get to work so quickly after coming back from a workout. Her voice had grown so serious in such a short time; she was actually hard at work. The idea of bothering her actually made me feel a little bad…
… only a little bad.
“Hm… I wonder what’s nearby I can use to really give her a surprise…” Instead of just going up to her feet to get her attention, an idea popped into my head. What would be the most effective way to shock Lori at my size? Was it just because we were siblings? I almost felt like it was my obligation as her younger brother to try and annoy my big sister.
I paid close attention to my big sister’s movements. As she got into the groove of working, she put on her headphones to listen to some music. That made it easier for me to go beneath her notice, but, at the same time, listening to music caused her to follow the beat. Her one foot on the floor started tapping rhythmically. It was a little unnerving at my size because, every second her toes jumped up, they always ended up either to my chest level or above my head.
This was an opportunity for a little mischief though. Looking around, I found an item I could use for a simple prank: a metal paper clip that had fallen off of Lori’s desk and had been forgotten for weeks. Walking over to it, I picked it up, seeing that part of it had been bent so that one of its tips was pointing outwards. That saved me the convenience of doing it myself.
A way to alleviate boredom while tiny - messing with people who didn’t realize I was there - sounded interesting enough. It would definitely be fun getting Lori to jump. Holding the bent paperclip like a bayonet rifle, it certainly felt like I was holding a toy.
“Perfect,” I smirked and slowly made my way to over 130 foot tall sister’s tapping foot.
Thump…! Thump Thump…! Thump…!
One big drop and the two quick ones - titanic sister was consistent in following the beat of the song. Each impact of her foot dug an impression in the carpet that was somewhat slow to reform. I had to be careful because getting closer to Lori’s foot was like approaching an industrial crusher. Well, I was keeping my distance anyway because, unlike an industrial crusher, Lori’s post-workout foot smelled too strongly of sweat and sock fibers. My nose scrunched up from the odor.
“Alright. Doesn’t look like she’s realized,” I mumbled to myself when I got close enough to do what I wanted but far enough to avoid being hit by her toes. I was absolutely certain that she hadn’t noticed my pattering on the carpet at her feet.
What was my plan? Well, because Lori was just tapping her foot on the floor, I fell to the temptation of wanting to put something in her way. It wouldn’t hurt too much, but it would definitely give her a shock if she hit it. I wasn’t even going to use the tip of the paper clip. I was going to use the rounded end.
Thump…! Thump Thump…! Thump…!
“One. Two. One… One. Two. One…” I counted along with the beat to figure out the right timing. When Lori’s foot rose up after her double tap was the moment I had to wait for. “Now!”
I quickly put the paper clip into place right under her big toe and trudged away from her foot as quickly as I could to avoid Lori’s reaction when she slammed her foot right into the upright paperclip.
…
………..
……………….
Thump…! Thump Thump…! Thump…!
Unfortunately for me, there was no reaction. The rhythmic tapping of Lori’s foot continued. Turning around, I saw the paper clip sunken into the carpet. Even though I put it upright and in her path, the flimsy paper clip meant nothing to the sheer mass that was my big sister’s foot. It had been pressed into the carpet under the weight of her foot and was now getting shoved deeper and deeper into the carpet every second.
“Well… Guess that prank failed,” I couldn’t help but laugh at how lame the result had turned out. Did Lori not even notice it?
I didn’t have the time to figure out that answer sadly as Lori’s song ended.
“Next song is… Oh, this one’s good.”
Thump Thump! Thump Thump!
“W-What the- Wargh!”
Suddenly changing the rhythm of her tapping was one thing, but Lori’s foot shifted away from where it had been sitting the entire time - rising directly above me and slamming down on me in an instant. Even if I had run away from her foot earlier, I was still well within her reach. I was slammed face first into the carpet by my sister’s foot.
Thump Thump! Thump Thump!
Just like the paper clip, Lori’s sweaty foot pressed down on me and forced me deeper into the carpet under its weight. The ball of her foot was directly on my back, pinning me down. I could feel my T-shirt soaking up sweat from her foot. What was worse was that she was still tapping her feet. Her toes rose and fell, effectively spanking my butt twice every second in tune with the beat of whatever song she was listening to.
“Oh. This simulation looks promising. Maybe I’ll only need to test it out just once. It should work at home if I’m right…”
Thump Thump! Thump Thump!
“Mgff!”
Despite me being bigger than the paper clip, Lori hadn’t realized I was beneath her at all. She was so concentrated on her work. I guess it was because my weight was so close to the paper clip’s weight. Lori continued thumping her toes down onto my back no matter how hard I tried to resist and escape.
…
…….
…………..
It wasn’t until the song ended that Lori shifted her foot again. Her toes scraped over my back, pulling up my shirt, and then rolled over my head.
“Hm…?” This was when Lori finally noticed she had been stepping on something. It was only then that she lifted her foot off me and pushed her chair away from her desk to look underneath. “Remy?”
“... Urgh… About time, Sis…” I groaned, happy that my sister finally noticed me but exhausted from being physically crushed beneath her foot.
Lori took off her headphones and reached down, plucking me off the floor between her fingers. My stomach churned as she lifted my dangling body high up to her face. “The heck? What were you doing to get stepped on by me? I didn’t even feel you.”
“Uh, I wanted to get out of the room?” I would’ve liked to lie with a straight face, but it was difficult in front of my big sister’s building sized face. I wasn’t afraid of heights, but being dangled in the air did not help me maintain my calm. As such, my body language betrayed me and my eyes started darting away from my sister’s gaze.
Glancing down at where I had been, Lori seemed to be inspecting the carpet. Her feet moved. She found the paper clip and immediately knew what I had tried to do. “Oh. I get it. You really wanted to bug me, huh?”
“Well, I mean I AM bug sized right now,” I tried to joke, knowing that, now that I was caught, Lori was going to get back at me. “So since you’ve already figured me out, what’s the punishment?”
“You sure are quick on the uptake. It almost takes all the fun out of paying you back for whatever prank you failed to do on me,” my sister sighed. She was disappointed that I wasn’t acting out. I knew my sister too well so it was just too easy for me to predict her actions.
Of course, she was still going to do it anyway.
Taking a tissue from the box on her desk, Lori tore off a small piece and pressed it against me. “Here, grab this.”
“What are you-Uwoaaaaaah!” I couldn’t finish my question and switched to shouting because Lori released her grip on my body. The force of gravity pulled me down immediately. I plummeted downwards. “Ooof!”
Unceremoniously dropping me back onto the floor… At the very least, the carpet softened my fall. If the torn tissue piece Lori had given me was meant to parachute my fall, then it did not do a good job at it.
Rumble…
Well, that was because it wasn’t. Lori kicking her legs out and spreading her soles right in front of me told me that much. She didn’t just hang each one over me. She tilted her feet so that there was no way I could escape to the left or the right. And with my dollhouse right behind me, I was effectively trapped.
“Ngk!” I covered my nose. The smell of my sister’s sweaty body was intense. The worst part of being trapped so close to Lori’s feet was the heat and odor wafting from her soles. Most of it collected in the enclosed space, enveloping me.
“You were trying to mess with my foot earlier right? Go ahead and mess away then,” Lori declared. “I had to cut my jog short since I got a call to help with a lab member’s project, so I didn’t have time to take a bath. You can wipe a little sweat off of my feet, can’t you, Little Bro?”
“More sweat…?” I groaned. I walked up to my sister’s left heel and started wiping without objection. At this point in life, I knew arguing with my big sister any more would make things worse for me, especially at my current 3 inch size. The only thing I could do was to plug my nose and endure until she was satisfied. “Fine…”
I shoved the towel sized tissue into my sister’s sole. Immediately, the part of the tissue I was holding absorbed a single droplet of sweat and became soggy. There was no way I’d be able to clean my sister’s entire sole with just one part of a tissue. Honestly, at my size, there was no way I’d be able to do even half her sole without exhausting myself. Each foot was roughly four times bigger than me after all.
“Well, aren’t you a good boy? Did you get used to feet after massaging mine and Alice’s?” Lori laughed at how quickly I had gotten to work.
“I’d rather not get used to this, but I guess I had it coming to me for trying to prank you.”
You reap what you sow - that’s what crossed my mind as a drop of sweat dripped from above me down onto my arm. I had wanted to get a reaction out of my sister and I got one. It just wasn’t the response I wanted. Bothering someone just because you’re bored was only fun when you didn’t have any consequences for your actions. At my size, it was too easy to get caught and to receive payback in return. I had picked the wrong target. Messing with Lori was my own mistake and was one I’d likely continue to make in the future too considering I never learned my lesson after all my years as her younger brother.
“You’re not exactly at a good size to prank someone, Bro. You should’ve done this to Alice instead of me. She probably would’ve given you the reaction you were looking for.”
“Alice, huh? You think?” Lori made a good suggestion. Getting Alice to freak out would certainly get her to speak out more. She was younger than me, but I could certainly be the annoying little brother to her for a bit.
“Wait, I was just joking. You’re not actually thinking about doing that are you?”
“You’re the one who suggested it.” I accepted no responsibility for what I was going to do. I blamed Lori for it.
Rumble!
“Hahaha!” My big sister’s laugh caused her to unconsciously move her legs closer together. I was worried for a second that she’d end up squishing me between her feet, but she thankfully didn’t. “I kind of want to know what happens. She’s been starting conversations with you more often after that tickling you did before, right? Like when I was making dinner? Maybe giving her a literal poke will push her in the right direction.”
Considering that was our goal, Lori was willing to play along with my decision to try and prank Alice. Lori’s interest in the result actually got her to lighten my punishment.
“Fine, I let you out in a bit so you can go do that, alright? Just let me compile my simulation proposal and send out an email first.”
My failure to prank Lori was just a practice run, I told myself. There was now a new goal set for today for me to pass the time while shrunken down: provoking Alice. Our shy little cousin would certainly be in for a shock now that Lori and I were on the same page on the matter. We really wanted an answer to the question: How was she going to react?
“Hey, get between my toes too. Don’t skimp out,” Lori interrupted my thoughts by lowering her foot and stretching her toes so the gap between them was right in front of me. She did not forget about continuing my punishment.
“Fine… God, this is gross.” That was right, I had to deal with the dirt, lint, and sweat on my sister’s feet first before dealing with Alice.