“Guys, this is a really bad idea,” Alena warned.

            “Stop being such a worry wart. She'll be fine.” Heather stood tall with one foot on her skateboard. The sun hung directly above them, unimpeded by clouds. They were on a cement trail carved through the metropark, Alena seated on a bench off the side of the path. Heather had superglued a tiny pair of gloves onto the front end of her skateboard, along with a pair of knee pads. Seated on the board was the tiny Lynn strapping herself in. “She's wearing a helmet.”

            “That's not going to protect her if you step on her. Or what if she gets loose and flies onto the pavement? Or what if you stop too suddenly and the inertia gives her whiplash? Or what if a bird swoops down and…”

            “Bro, trust me.” Heather placed a hand on Alena's shoulder. “I'll be careful. I'm not going to step on your girlfriend or let anything else happen to her.” She looked down at the miniature girl strapped in beside her massive sneaker. “You ready, Lynn?”

            “Hell yeah!” Lynn shot her friend a thumbs up before slipping her hand into the glove. Kicking off the ground, Heather cruised forward on her board at a slow pace for her but brisk for the tiny. She sped up gradually, remaining straight on the trail as she picked up speed. The wind blustered through Lynn’s cheeks and hair, fueling a sensation akin to what a big would feel riding a motorcycle. “Wheeeeeeeee!” As her tiny passenger acclimated, Heather swerved from side to side, letting Lynn course through the strong breeze.

            Alena chewed on her nails as she watched from the bench. So far, Heather kept her word, though she was going a bit faster than Alena would prefer, and the swerving seemed like an unnecessary risk, and she really didn’t like the look of that pigeon flying overhead. Heather pressed forward twenty yards up the trail, passing a sign warning tinies to stay off the path unless accompanied by a big, and then pivoted a hundred eighty degrees to turn back, swinging Lynn on the upturned board.

            As the two headed back to her, Alena took a deep breath. They were too far for her to tell how much fun Lynn was having, but the smile on Heather's face reassured her. I shouldn't worry so much, Alena thought. She can take care of herself. Let her live her own life. Can't cage a free spirit. 

            Heather kicked at the ground, reaching breakneck speeds for her tiny passenger. Back on the bench, Alena tried to rationalize her friend's sudden acceleration when she noticed the metal rail lining the side of the path. With a fire in her eyes, Heather headed straight towards the smooth-topped railing. 

            “Oh no. No. Please, no. Don't do it. No.” Alena buried her face in her hands, peeking through the gaps in her fingers out of morbid curiosity. Against her best friend's wishes, Heather popped onto the railing and grinded on it like a pro. Lynn screamed in delight as gale winds threatened to blow her clean off the board. She wanted to throw her hands in the air and drown in the exhilaration, but her gloves kept her firmly in place and free from whipping about.

            Upon hitting the end of the rail, Heather hopped off it with a frontside 360, clearing the landing after fully spinning her board and the tiny riding on it, and rolled nonchalantly up to the bench.

            “Oh my God! Lynn, are you alright?” Alena fell to her knees, ready to pull her girlfriend off the board and into safe hands.

            “That was fucking radical!” Lynn shouted, her long hair standing on all ends beneath her helmet. “Holy shit! Do that again! Again! Ag- uh, Bleugh!” Pale as a sheet, Lynn vomited her guts out onto the end of the board. Alena retracted her arm, still worried but slightly less willing to offer a hand.

            “Maybe the 360 was a bit much,” Heather muttered, taking her foot off the board. It was one of her older decks, so she wasn't too concerned about the tiny desecrating it.

            “You think?” Once her girlfriend finished vomiting, Alena finagled Lynn out of her restraints, holding the lightheaded girl in her palm. Heather pulled a Gatorade out of her backpack lying beside the bench and poured a small serving into the cap.

            “Here, this should get you some nutrients back.” Heather placed the cap on Alena's fingers before the tiny. Lynn heeded her friend's aid and dunked her head in the lemon-lime sports drink.

            “What happened to being careful?” Alena grilled.

            “I thought she'd enjoy it. She kept yelling to go faster.” Heather turned away from her friend. “The trick at the end was… Well, I got caught up in the heat of things, I guess.”

Lynn pulled herself up with a big gasp. The color had already returned to the little lady's skin.      “Ok, I'm better now. Let's go again.”

            “Nuh-uh. No more skating for you.” This time, Alena's stoic facade didn't crack under the pressure of Lynn's puppy dog eyes. 

            “It's cool, Lynn. We'll find the chance to sneak off…” Heather felt the icy daggers of Alena's glare. “I mean, ahem. No more dangerous stunts, you hear?” The three grabbed their things and walked down the trail, Heather strapping her board to her bag after wiping the drop of puke off it with a tissue.

            “By the way, Lynn, are you and Jackie going to Mage Con next week?” Alena asked.

            “Considering I don’t know what that is: wasn’t planning on it.” Lynn continued to sip from the Gatorade cap which her girlfriend kindly held steady as she walked.

            “Midwest Anime and Gaming Expo. It’s kinda like a scaled back Comic Con, but it’s still a ton of fun. Me and Heather go every year, and we were thinking Jackie, Pierce, and maybe you and Javi would want to tag along.”

            “Sounds like a total dweebfest…” Lynn teased.

            “That’s because it is,” Heather jested, lighting up a cigarette.

            “But if you’re going, I’ll be there.” Lynn held her hand up for a high five which Alena returned with the tip of her forefinger. “And I don’t think Jackie will mind the crowds if her friends are with her. I’ll let her know.”

…

            Javi and Pierce lounged about the latter’s basement, the former scrolling on his phone while his best friend played video games. Javi kept swapping tabs between Shawna, Heather, and Michelle’s Instagram pages, making sure to leave likes on an equal and modest amount of pics on all three accounts.

            “Maybe if you ask nicely enough, all three will go out with you,” Pierce tossed out, his focus trained on the television screen.

            “If there’s one thing I know about bigs, it’s that they don’t like to share. There ain’t enough of me to go around.” Javi liked a photo of Shawna in a sleeveless dress, raising a champagne glass in a celebratory toast. “Who would you go for if you were in my shoes?”

            “So, it's between your babysitter/neighbor turned sort of teacher, the heiress to a trillion-dollar estate, or the clingy girl who's been obsessed with you since high school.” Pierce's hatred for his best friend burned bright green. “I’d pick Heather. Make her happy and you’re set for life.”

            “Wow, I never realized you were so shallow.” Javi lingered on a top-down picture of Heather at the beach, her bare arms raised behind her head as she lounged on a towel.

            “I’m not saying that’s the only reason to date her, but if I had to pick between the three, that’s a deciding factor.”

            “Uh-huh.” Javi saved the pic to his phone. “And if we add Jackie to the mix, is the choice still that simple?”

            Pierce paused his game and turned to his friend. “You’re not thinking of asking Jackie out, are you?”

            “Nah, she ain’t my type. Too shy.” Javi smirked while putting his phone away. “But you’re thinking about it, I hope.”

            Pierce put his controller down and wiped his clammy hands on his pants, the sweat from his forehead dripping above his red cheeks. Mulled over scenarios looped in his head as anxiety crept out from its den. “Sure. Eventually.”

            “The hell are you waiting for?”

            “I just,” his eyes darted around the room, searching for excuses. “I'm waiting for the right moment, when I'm confident she'd be interested. I don't want to ask too soon and weird her out.”

            Javi dragged his hands along his face, suffering from a tiresome sense of deja vu. “First off, you're never going to be confident about how someone else feels. It's not in your nature. Jackie could tell you her feelings to your face, and you'd still find a way to doubt yourself. Secondly, she's definitely into you. She wouldn't have spent her Saturday watching you fix a car if she didn't like you.”

            “Maybe she just wanted an excuse to hang around you,” Pierce interrupted. “You were shirtless most of the time.”

            “Nah, dude. Trust me, she was there for you. You could tell as much if you spent half the time staring at her feet looking at her eyes instead.”

            “I wasn’t… Shut up.”

            “And third,” Javi continued, “even if she rejects you, it’s not that big a deal. She’s not going to suddenly hate you for asking her on a date, but you will hate yourself if you never take the shot.” Pierce was ready to retort with more excuses, but he was interrupted by his phone ringing. As if on cue, the call came from Jackie. Pierce attempted to grab the phone off the coffee table, knocking it onto the floor, and then bumped his forehead against the table’s edge as he picked it up off the carpet.

            “Y-yo, hello, what’s up?” To Pierce’s side, Javi gave his friend a thumbs up in silent support.

            “Hey! Sorry to call you out of nowhere, but I was wondering if you were free next Sunday?” The two tinies worried over whether Pierce’s heartbeat was audible over the line.

            “Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-yeah. Definitely! I’m free, yeah.” He had no clue if he was free, but if there was an obligation, then it could be pushed aside.

            “Great! Heather invited us all to Mage Con with her and Alena, and I figured that’d be right up your alley. Javi can come too if he wants, so could you let him know for me?”

            “Oh,” Pierce breathed a heavy sigh and set his phone to speaker. “He’s actually with me right now.”

            “‘Sup, Jackie. Sure, I’m up for that.” As he spoke, machinations whirred to life in Javi’s head. “Maybe the three of us should do a group cosplay.”

            “That’d be so cool!” Jackie cheered. “We gotta do a mecha anime! You guys can be the pilots to my giant robot.”

            “I don’t know, that might be too complex for such short notice,” Pierce posited.

            “Right, I forgot we have to make the costumes ourselves.”

            “How about One Piece?” Javi suggested. “They wear pretty simple outfits, and I’d make a killer Zoro.”

            “That’s perfect! I can be Nami and Pierce can be Luffy.”

            Pierce looked down at his portly figure, his poor self-image distracting him from picturing Jackie as the busty cat burglar. “I guess I could justify it as Gum-Gum Balloon Luffy.”

            “Ha ha, I think you’ll look great.” A honeyed pause permeated the air. “Oh, and I had a favor to ask of you, Pierce, if that’s cool with you.”

            “Shoot.”

            “I bought this used gaming PC on a whim. It was real cheap and supposed to come with all the parts, but I can’t get it to work. Would you mind taking a look at it? No rush; it’s not important or anything.” Listening in, Javi smiled wide and gave two thumbs up, convinced Jackie was head over heals for this dork.

            “No problem. I’d be happy to help.”

            “Great! Thanks so much.”

…

            After talking with Pierce, Jackie hung up the phone and drew a deep breath, her heart pounding out of her chest. She was lying on the floor of her dorm in between the two beds.

            “So, how’d it go?” Lynn asked from her tucked away room. She was flipping through streaming services on her TV, trying to find something to watch.

            “Good, I think.” Jackie turned her head to face her sister, giving her a complete view of the room beneath the bed. “We’re going to all cosplay together.”

            “I heard. You’re going as Nami, you said?” Lynn grabbed one of her sketchbooks and flipped through it. “Isn’t she the one who never wears a shirt?”

            “That’s only post-timeskip. We’re definitely doing pre-…” Jackie snagged her phone and texted Pierce.

            For the cosplay, we’re doing their pre-timeskip designs, right?

            For sure! Pierce replied. Nobody covers their chest after the skip. Javi wouldn’t mind, but then he’d have to put in more effort than wearing a white T-shirt.

            Haha! Cool. I know I’m not confident enough to wear a bikini into a convention center. Unbeknownst to Jackie, Pierce was fighting to keep that enticing image out of his mind all while failing to figure out how the hell he was supposed to reply to that.

            Lol, he ended up with.

            “You think Alena would like it if I dressed up as one of these characters?” Lynn asked, paging through sketches of scantily clad women from the different anime Jackie watched.

            “Absolutely! I’m familiar with most of the series she likes, so I can pick someone out for you. Then, it can be a big surprise the day of.” Jackie’s eyes lit up, excited about her sister’s costume as much as her own. Though, more than that, her thoughts were preoccupied with Pierce in a red vest and straw hat. “Hey, do you think I was being needy asking Pierce to look at my PC?”

            “Needy?” Lynn tossed her sketchbook aside and returned to aimless browsing. “The hell are you on about?”

            “I don’t know. It seemed like a good excuse to reach out to him, but I don’t want him to think I’m just using him.”

            “Jackie,” Lynn huffed, “Pierce is a dork, and you’re the prettiest girl he’s ever talked to. Aside from me of course. He’s never gonna get upset by you asking for help. If anything, he wants you to use him.”

            “He’s not a dork,” Jackie pouted.

            “Yes, he is. You can’t tell because you’re one too. And what do you need excuses for? Just ask him out already.” Lynn settled on rewatching an old season of The Bachelor. Jackie blushed, hypothetical scenarios battering her active imagination, many of them unoptimistic. Lynn shot a glance at her sister catastrophizing and rolled her eyes. “Or keep waiting for him to ask you. I hope you can come up with enough excuses to last ‘til graduation.”

…

            Knock-knock

            Pierce waited in front of the tiny door to Lynn and Jackie’s dorm room, Javi standing right behind him. The former was decked out in a cherry red vest, jean shorts, flip-flops, and a straw hat with a red headband wrapped around the bowl; all of which were purchased from a thrift shop near his house. His shaggy hair was dyed black, and he drew a scar underneath his left eye with a washable sharpie. Javi, on the other hand, was wearing a basketball jersey, gym pants, and sneakers.

            “Coming,” Lynn shouted from the other side. When she opened the door, the boys mouths dropped to the floor. She wore a sharp black dress which cut off at the bust and ran down the length of her legs, accentuating her hourglass figure. Her hands were covered to the elbow in matching black gloves. The curly locks of a black wig cascaded past her shoulders, and her lips were painted blood red. A bright red ouroboros had been drawn directly below her clavicle. “Hey, guys. Like my outfit?”

            “Damn, you look great,” Javi remarked. Pierce was left speechless, but nodded along to his friend’s praise. “You’re that lady from FMA?”

            “I guess?” Lynn shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve never seen it. But apparently, it’s one of Alena’s favorites.” The tiny stepped aside to let her peers through. Stepping inside, Pierce regained his composure, only for his jaw to drop once more, plummeting through the floor and boring into the earth.

            Jackie towered over the tiny trio in a white, unbuttoned polo shirt with blue stripes painted across the chest. Her short bob had been dyed a bright orange, and her waist was adorned with a yellow miniskirt. She couldn’t find the right pair of boots to complete the outfit, but she did stumble on a pair of open toe wedges with tangerine buckles holding the straps together and decided that’d serve her needs. Like Pierce, all her items had been sourced from a local thrift market. “Javi, why aren’t you in costume?”

            “Sorry, it sorta slipped my mind.” Javi nudged Pierce’s arm, waiting for the retort. When nudging didn’t elicit a response, he resorted to punching his shoulder.

            “Uh, that’s his way of saying he was too lazy to bother,” Pierce belted out as if reciting a forgotten line. He hadn’t blinked since entering the room.

            “Hey,” Javi whispered, “You’re gonna want to look up at the rest of her too.” Jackie’s toenails were painted orange. Her fingernails were too, but that took longer for Pierce to notice.

            “At least Pierce pulled through,” Jackie said smiling. “You certainly pass as the King of the Pirates.”

            “Th-thanks. You look spot on yourself.” Pierce tore his gaze away from Jackie to look around her room. He’d never been in a girl’s bedroom before, and for some reason that seemed to make this trip meaningful to him somehow. “So, where’s this PC at?”

            “Back by the desk.” Jackie led her tiny friend to the brick shaped unit standing at the end of the room and opened it up for him to walk inside. Fans, wires, plugs, and outlets filled the mechanical beast, giving Pierce plenty of nooks and edges to clamber into and over. It was an older unit and built simply and cheaply, lacking a lot of the gaudy lights and accessories commonly found in similar units of the era. “I’ve always been a console girl, so I’m kinda out of my element here.”

            “I gotta say, for how old this thing is, it’s surprisingly clean.” Pierce crawled about, examining wires and ports, and peering into the grated fans, careful not to fall onto the blades.

            “Oh, I took the whole thing apart and dusted everything off. I didn’t want you to get sick inside there.” Jackie squatted in front of the tower, tucking her orange hair behind her ear. “I think I put everything back in the right spot, but again, I’m not an expert on this.”

            Pierce turned around to thank her for her thoughtfulness, but immediately looked away after a quick glance through the opening. The way Jackie was squatting in her short skirt, her white panties were on full display. Skirts which cut off above the knee dropped off the face of big fashion when their wearers started cohabitating with tinies. Nowadays, they were primarily worn by exhibitionists. More modest fashionistas paired them with leggings or sweatpants, but many modern women saw them as clothing of a bygone era, preferring the coverage provided by slacks or dress skirts of less revealing lengths.

            Jackie noticed Pierce’s sudden reaction and looked down. Having worn jeans and shorts her whole life, the fact she could now flash tinies her underwear completely slipped her mind. Jackie fell forward and repositioned herself onto her arms and knees, mortified to think her unintentional display may have offended her friend. Thinking it safe, Pierce turned to face her again only to be greeted by an equally suggestive sight.

            With her polo shirt unbuttoned, there was little obscuring Jackie’s cleavage as she lay forward. Pierce’s gaze once again retreated into the computer’s mechanisms. When Jackie realized her mistake, she sat straight up on her legs, knees tucked tight together and hands resting on her lap, locking eyes on a safe spot in the corner as if to mimic her tiny pal.

            “I found the problem,” Pierce said, finally able to look Jackie’s way. “You’re CPU isn’t compatible with this motherboard. Whoever you bought this from must’ve gotten their parts mixed up before selling it to you.” The tiny walked out of the computer tower, still in awe at the giant cosplayer seated before him. “I’ll look up some recommendations when I get home and send them to you.”

            “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.” Jackie held her hand out for Pierce, lifting the tiny as he climbed on. To Pierce’s shock, Jackie’s usual peach lotion had been swapped with one scented like tangerines. “Are you guys ready to go?” Jackie asked the room.

            Knock-knock-knock!

            “That’s gotta be Alena,” Lynn deduced. “Jackie, answer the door.”

            “On it,” Jackie did as commanded and opened the door for the woman on the other side. Alena had on a Dragon Ball Z T-shirt depicting Goku charging up a Spirit Bomb and a pair of blue jeans.

            “Woah! You two look great.” she commented, impressed by both Jackie and the tiny she held’s costumes.

            “Wait until you see Lynn.” Jackie stepped out of the way, leading Alena towards the tinies on the floor. Recognizing her cue, Lynn jutted her hip to the side, resting one hand on it while positioning the other up behind her head.

            “Oh my God!” Alena covered her grinning mouth and fell to her knees to get a closer look at her dolled-up girlfriend. “Lynn, you look fantastic!”

            “Don’t I always?” she cooed, waltzing onto her giant girlfriend’s waiting palm. Jackie bent over and grabbed Javi, joining him with his friend in her hand.

            “Yes, of course, but you wear Lust very well.” Holding Lynn before her face, Alena wanted to fuss over her so bad, but she wasn’t about to ruin the tiny’s amazing costume.

            “Seriously?” Lynn gave herself a once over. “Her name’s Lust?” Jackie had already told her this, but the smaller twin wasn’t paying attention at the time.

            “Yeah, she’s one of the seven deadly sins,” Alena explained. “It’s a whole thing. I’ll explain on the way there.” The two bigs gathered their things, as well as their puny passengers, and departed. “Heather’s going to meet us outside the convention center. She already has all our tickets bought.”

…

            The convention center spanned out in a sea of booths, stages, exhibits, lines, displays, merchandise, arcade cabinets, and nerds of all sizes. Mage Con was split into different sections. Ailes of entrepreneurs and artists sold merch, art pieces, and doujins of various popular series. Stages were set up with large seating for panels hosted by industry guests. A pop-up arcade filled with dozens of classic game cabinets sat not far from the section where some local tourneys were being held. An expansive food court that connected outside hosted catering from a variety of local eateries and food trucks. And each section of the convention was fully accessible to bigs and tinies.

            Suspended platforms hung from the scaffolding three yards off the floor, forming a complex series of railed-in hallways for tinies to traverse above the rest of the action. Lifts connected these platforms to the various amenities such as the merchant booths which were all connected in each aisle to allow tinies to walk along the table tops and browse the merch. Tiny vendors were also stationed on their own larger booths, allowing fellow smalls to walk through them like normal aisles and bigs to interact from above. Alongside the multi-size control options featured on the bigger arcade cabinets, there were miniature cabinets allowing tinies to play on more comfortably scaled screens with some even capable of connecting to the larger cabinets for crossplay. The food court featured both tiny only seating quartered off on the floor and miniature furniture on the larger tables.

            “Where do you guys want to start?” Heather asked as the group of six wandered into the crowd of brightly dressed fanboys and fangirls. The towering heiress wore a plain, long-sleeve crop top and cargo pants, her half-blonde / half-blue hair not standing out for once among the gathering of Super Saiyans and Harley Quinns.

            “I’m leaving that up to you guys,” Javi declared, sitting atop Heather’s scalp. Pierce rode on Jackie’s shoulder while Lynn sat cradled in her girlfriend’s hand.

            “Yeah, this ain’t my element either,” Lynn added, turning her attention towards Alena. “Whatever you want to do, I’ll follow.”

            “I want to check the booths,” Alena said, “see what figures they got. Maybe grab some Blu-rays.”

            “Pierce, we gotta get in line for Armored Phantasia,” Jackie told the tiny on her shoulder. “This is the last demo event before launch, so we have to check it out.”

            “For sure! I know I won’t be able to afford the full thing when it comes out.”

            “Then how's about we split up,” Heather decided. “You two can check out your video game…”

            “It's not just a video game,” Jackie interrupted, “it's a fully immersive experience blending advanced AR technologies with extremely well-produced practical props to perfectly emulate…”

            “Alena and Lynn can check out the stalls, and Javi and I can wander around and browse. Let's meet back up in the food court in, say, an hour.”

…

            With the pair having arrived early enough in the day, the line to the Armored Phantasia demo was rather short with an estimated half-hour wait time. Pierce sat cross-legged on Jackie’s shoulder, concentrating on keeping his gaze from wandering down. A grand crevice lied below him, the soft mounds beckoning for the tiny’s attention.

            Jackie peeked over at the tiny on her shoulder, her lips curling ever so slightly upward. Her breathing was steady and her movements subtle, ensuring her passenger’s comfort while they waited in line. Looking at Pierce kept her mind off the bigs flanking her. The tinies had a separate line leading to the demo, but those with bigs in their group hung around their larger companions.

            “Omigod! You two are so cute!” a Baiken cosplayer passing by shouted, running up to the pair’s spot in line. “Can I get a picture with you?”

            “Uh, sure,” Jackie replied, bothered by the fact the cosplayer didn’t attempt to hide what should have been a severed arm. The cosplayer reached over the stanchion belt and grabbed Jackie by the shoulder, leaning in for a selfie. Pierce felt his world tremble as the two women collided, the pink-haired stranger snapping the shot as the tiny tumbled forward into the cosplayer’s exposed cleavage. “Oh!” Pierce squirmed about between the gargantuan chest beefers, his arms and legs flailing against the velvety fat as he sunk headfirst into the darkness.

            “Ah! Pierce!” Jackie waved her arms helplessly, desperate to rescue her friend but unwilling to reach into a stranger’s treasure valley. All she could see of the tiny were his miniscule feet poking out from the sea of skin.

            “Oops. My bad.” The cosplayer dove into her cleavage and plucked Pierce free, returning the dazed man to his spot on Jackie’s shoulder. She fished around deeper between her breasts to retrieve his little hat, plopping it on his head with a smile. “Don’t want to get your girlfriend upset.”

            “I’m not-”

            “She’s not-”

            “Seeya!” The cosplayer waved, winked, and went on her merry way, leaving the not couple to recollect themselves. Pierce buried himself beneath his straw hat, trying to block out his blushing face.

            “Sorry about that. Are you alright?” Jackie asked, a tinge of envy creeping through her chest. Maybe I should be less careful with him, a random thought intruded. Take a wrong step, trip a little, and send him rolling right into my…

            “I’m fine,” Pierce said, snapping Jackie out of her fantasy. “Sorry about…” Pierce paused. Wait, what am I apologizing for? Touching another girl's boobs? We're just friends, she wouldn't care about that. In fact, she'd probably be weirded out if I thought she did care about that. Shit, what do I say? What do I say? “Sorry if I worried you.”

            “No problem. It wasn't your fault.” The pair waited as the line moved forward. Jackie took a couple steps and stopped, deciding now wasn't the time for tripping.

…

            “Jesus, now he's crawling into her dick?” Javi asked, peeking over Heather’s forehead from the top of her scalp to look at the doujin she was skimming. The comic's cover depicted a tiny proposing to his giant girlfriend, and Heather picked it up expecting some wholesome fluff, but the contents inside were everything but wholesome.

            “Hey, you got anything more, uh, vanilla than this?” Heather asked the vendor. 

            “Sorry if my art elicits an emotional response more intense than what you can handle,” the doujin artist derided, pushing up his glasses, “but I refuse to censor my work to make it more digestible for the normies. Though it doesn't garner the respect and attention from academic elitists, erotica is actually the superior artform in exploring the raw, emotional tempest of the human soul. What you may view as ‘extreme’ fetish content is actually a nuanced representation of the human psyche. For example, Hanabi-chan’s engorged penis is actually symbolic of…” Heather set the book down and walked away. “Wait, where are you going? I haven’t finished explaining.”

            “Damn, did you see how tall that lady was?” A tiny con-goer said, standing beside a copy of Guro Girl’s Festival. “I wish she’d step on me.”

            “So do I, my friend.” A single tear sprang from the vendor’s eye, dancing through the air in a crystalline flash, vanishing in a glistening display of transience. “So do I.”

            Javi clutched the bicolored strands of Heather’s hair, bobbing along as she walked through the convention center. Bright posters and gaudy cosplayers caught the two's eyes as they traversed the geeky labyrinth. Heather had no destination in mind, simply wandering and people-watching, and Javi had no choice but to follow, not that he had much inclination to do much else.

            “So, when's the season start?” Heather asked her passenger while eyeing a rack of famous, fictional swords.

            “For basketball? First week of November.” Javi checked his reflection in the blade of the Master Sword hanging before him. “If you attend one of our games, I’ll score a three-pointer for you.”

            “Ha! You tell that to all the girls?” Heather poked at the revolver barrel of a replica Gunblade to see if it actually spun. To her delight, it did!

            “Pretty much.”

            “Fine.” Heather stepped away from the swords and made towards a stall selling used, retro games. “I'll go to your games if you come to my skate contests.”

            “Deal! I didn't realize you competed.”

            “Yep. My goal is to win gold at the Olympics someday. My mom keeps telling me I'm better off doing BMX or snowboarding, but it's got to be skateboarding. It debuted in Tokyo for fuck's sake!” Thumbing through the old games, Heather was disappointed at the lack of Tony Hawk titles. Well, she did find a copy of Pro Skater 5, but even its low asking price was too high for a trillionaire.

            “Didn’t snowboarding make its Olympic debut in Japan too?”

            “Yeah, but that was in Nagano. I was born in Tokyo and spent my early childhood there before moving over here. Besides, snowboarding’s just a hobby. It’s a pain in the ass trying to find somewhere with decent enough snowfall.” Heather stepped away from the video games and continued walking.

            “Who knows, maybe I’ll end up competing in the Olympics too. I’ll be a TNBA superstar after all.” Javi snickered as they passed a man cosplaying the Colossal Titan standing a full six inches shorter than Heather.

            “You sure are confident.”

            “I’ve gotta be. No one else will for me,” Javi said, leaning back on Heather’s scalp, using her hair as a cot. “And hey, you’re aiming for Olympic gold. You get how important ambition is.”

            “Guess so.” To be honest, the word ‘ambition’ just brought to mind the lectures her parents would give her. “While we’re talking dreams, how about this? Let’s both aim for the top and get gold in the same games.” Heather held her pinkie up above her head, trying to reach Javi’s spot on her scalp though she couldn’t see him. Javi planted his hand against the expansive fingertip and squeezed the giantess’ skin.

            “Hell yeah! Why not?”

…

            “Woah, check out these mousepads,” Lynn said, standing on an anime merch booth. She pointed to an array of joke mousepads in which the foam wrist supports were designed to look like a character's boobs. The tiny Lust cosplayer hopped onto one of the pads, taking a seat on Mai Shiranui's left breast. Browsing the collection of lewd paraphernalia, she noticed one depicting Samus in doggy style with her ass taking the role of wrist support. “How about that one?” Lynn smirked, pointing to the pad. “If you like that, you could always rest your wrist on my butt.”

            “Lynn!” Alena bemoaned in a hushed tone, plucking her girlfriend off the table and into her soft, lumbering fingers. Lynn adjusted to her new seating with incredible ease, weaving her body around her girlfriend’s fingers like a kid in a jungle gym.

            “Granted, I'd prefer you rest your butt on me. You owe me for all the times I rest mine on you,” she said with her butt planted firmly on the side of Alena’s ring finger.

            “Please stop.” Alena perched her partner on her shoulder and walked away from the booth. “It's bad enough you look like that. That and all the teasing is making me weak in the knees.”

            Lynn strutted across Alena's shoulder closer towards her head. “Good,” the tiny whispered straight into her ear, sending the giantess into a wobbling fit. The little lady laughed as her lover struggled to regain composure. The young couple traipsed through the crowded convention center, taking in all the bizarre sights lining the vendors’ tables or walking alongside them. Alena got so distracted between spotting supreme quality figures, fawning over talented cosplayers, and making sure Lynn was secure on her shoulder, she didn’t notice the bear of a man walking up to her.

            “Lynn, see that statue over there? That’s actually- Oomph!” Alena brushed shoulders with the passerby, though her shoulder didn’t actually reach up to his, nearly knocking her to the floor. Lynn had it even worse, tumbling backwards off her perch, narrowly avoiding an ugly drop by clutching onto the back of Alena’s T-shirt. “Sorry,” Alena instinctively apologized before noticing her GF’s plight. “Ah! I got you!” Alena scooped Lynn into her palm, letting her puny partner regain her footing on the larger woman’s palm. The man continued pressing forward unphased.

            “Watch where you’re going, you lunk!” Lynn shouted at the top of her lungs, causing the man to stop in his tracks and turn to face his diminutive detractor. The mighty monolith of muscle stood only a couple inches shorter than Heather and appeared as if he had just stepped off the set of an 80s action film. Peeking out of the top of his white wife beater was the head of a dragon tattoo that likely spanned his entire back. The glare he shot Lynn and Alena could bore through steel, but the tiny didn’t waver. “Well, are you going to apologize?” Lynn stood straight in her lover’s hand, her toothpick arms crossed. The man’s glare couldn’t hope to compete with the fire in the little lady’s eyes. “I’m waiting.”

            Lynn started shaking. Not out of nerves, at least not her own, but the foundation she stood on shook her as Alena feared for her partner’s safety. Hell, she was afraid for her own sake, the guy punching in far beyond her weight class.

            “Sorry,” he scoffed, continuing on his way.

            “God, the nerve of some people,” Lynn complained, her wig blowing in the heavy sigh let out by her partner. “Pulling teeth shouldn’t be easier than getting an apology.”

            “Where in the world do you get all that courage from?” Alena asked, raising Lynn closer to her face. The tiny cocked her head and raised her brow. “You saw that guy. He could have flattened you with his thumb.”

            “He couldn’t do shit,” Lynn huffed, raising her chin. “Injuring me in any capacity is grounds for a massive fine, add jailtime if it’s assault. Anything worse than that and life imprisonment’s almost guaranteed,” she shrugged. “It’d take a real idiot to take their anger out on a tiny with so many witnesses around.” Lynn’s casual explanation didn’t seem to sway Alena, so she dropped to her thighs and leaned against the massive thumb beside her like a damsel clinging to the leg of her hero. “But better than that, I have my big, beautiful girlfriend to protect me.”

            “You give me too much credit,” Alena chuckled, relishing the feeling of Lynn caressing her thumb with her gloved hands. “But I’d make sure to hold you tight as I run for my life.”

…

            Upon reaching the front of the line, Jackie lowered Pierce onto a table per the instructions of the developer running the demo. The table was cluttered with what would appear to a big to be robot action figures, but closer inspection would reveal that these machines were far more advanced than the average toy. Each robot was a fully detailed mech suit, none directly based on any specific franchise but each clearly inspired by genre greats. The mechs all stood around a foot tall with cockpits in their chests perfectly scaled to fit a tiny passenger. Pierce looked around the collection of giant fighting robots in awe while Jackie scanned them all from above, jealous over actually gigantic robots still being nothing more than a distant dream.

            “Take your time picking one out,” a two-inch tall woman said to Pierce, appearing out from behind a mechanical leg. Another dev, she wore an oil-stained jumpsuit and fully equipped tool belt around her waist. Pierce couldn’t tell if it was a costume or if she actually performed maintenance on the machines. “I can answer any questions you have while we get your friend strapped up. Each mech has unique stats, attributes, and weaponry, and everything you see here will launch separately alongside the rest of the game.” Amongst the knightmare frames, variable fighters, and LFOs, one mech had tank treads instead of legs, one had legs fashioned like a bird's with the knees facing backwards, and another was painted bright red, wearing sunglasses and a billowing scarf. There was even a girl mech with a pink, metallic skirt, steel titties, and twin tails formed out of loose wires. “We also have a Gattai expansion planned, so multiple players can combine their machines into one mega fighting form.”

            “I’ll take this one.” Pierce's suit of choice featured white limbs, a blue torso, and red and yellow accents throughout its frame. Its head was shaped like a samurai helmet with a crescent moon striking out from the top. Six steel rods were holstered to either side of its waist.

            “The Azure Dragon? Good choice.” The tiny dev opened a panel on its legs a keyed in a couple button presses, opening a hatch in the torso to reveal the cockpit. She then grabbed a miniature step ladder and set it up for Pierce to enter the robot. The cockpit featured a leather chair with two joysticks on either arm and a multitude of keys and buttons along the sticks. Pierce took a seat and leaned back as the mechanic stepped up the ladder to show him the controls. “The left stick controls your movement; forward and back move you forward and back, left and right let you strafe in those directions. Your right stick controls where you’re facing; left and right pivots you left and right, forward and back tilts your view up and down. The button on the top of the right stick controls your flight. Hold it to hover, and double tap while in the air to enter fly mode. These buttons along the side operate your weaponry. Right trigger is for machine gun fire, left is for bazooka fire. These buttons on the left are for switching between sword styles and these on the right act out different swings. There are different combinations you can try for different moves, but remember that using more swords at once will do more damage but drain your energy meter faster, so be strategic with how you fight. That's the basic rundown. If you have any questions at any point, simply ask. I'll be patched into your comms in case you need anything.”

            With the tutorial out of the way, the dev stepped down from the ladder and closed the chest hatch, briefly swallowing Pierce in darkness before the interior lights bloomed on. There were no windows to the outside, but the front wall of the cockpit formed an LED screen providing a real time feed of the outside. Pierce grabbed the joysticks and eased his suit around the table, getting a feel for the controls. Being an actual, pilotable robot, the mech had the expected weight and bounce to its gait that sold the illusion of turning its driver into a certified fighter pilot.

            “Yo, that’s so cool!” Jackie squealed from above. She was covered in a net of hexagonal pads overlaying her body and costume. Each one flashed sky blue, giving Jackie the appearance of a mocap actor. Alongside the sensor array, she also wore a large pair of clear-tint goggles completely covering her eyes as to overtake every angle of her vision. Pierce fiddled with the controls a bit and gave his giant friend a thumbs up. “When are you guys going make mobile suits I can fit into?”

            “Once we finally figure out how to vanquish the square cube law,” the larger dev joked. “Go ahead and pick your partner up and I’ll lead you both to the play area. And don’t worry about damaging the machine; you can’t.”

            Jackie wrapped her hand around the Azure Dragon’s waist and hoisted it up. It was surprisingly light, especially given how hard its shell and frame were. The toy was constructed out of a hyper dense plastic, giving it a hardness and strength resembling steel but much cheaper to produce. It ran on four AA batteries located in a compartment protruding slightly on the robot’s back.

            The pair walked into a black room formed by pop-up dividers. Veiled from the rest of the convention stood a miniature metropolis constructed at perfect scale with an authentic tiny district. Closer inspection would reveal the model lacked many details present in the real thing, especially the interiors, but a glance from a big wouldn’t register enough of that to matter. It spanned a 10x10ft area with roads separating city blocks to give bigs enough room to travel across. Jackie stepped into the main street bordered on either side by high rises and a couple skyscrapers, one towering a head taller than the twin. The ground beneath her felt squishier than an actual tiny road. Its constitution remained unpliable beneath her feet, but anyone who has walked through a tiny district could tell they were standing on a fancy mat.

            Jackie set the toy mech down on the ground and removed her wedges, placing them off to the side of the play area. Pierce positioned his sights to keep his friend's bare feet out of frame, his right hand trembling against the joystick as he waged a grueling war against temptation.

            “The level you’ll be playing is set for fifteen minutes,” the large dev explained from outside the model city. “You’ll be fighting Star Force who can spawn zombie minions. Your goal is to defeat it within the time limit while attempting to rescue at least 30% of the population. Destruction penalties have not been enabled and will not affect your score, so go hog wild. I’ll be outside observing your session with my colleague and will be patched in through your device’s comms if you have any questions.” The dev dipped out of the pop-up room. “Enjoy.”

            [MISSION START] appeared in bold red letters on each player’s display, and the artificial city populated with pedestrians. The hustle and bustle of the daily rat race played through Jackie’s earbuds and the speakers in Pierce’s cockpit. People walked down sidewalks buried in newspapers and idle conversation, unphased by the giant robot and even larger woman standing in the middle of the street. The convention center’s roof disappeared behind a cerulean sky dotted with clouds idyllic enough for angels to sleep on. Jackie gawked as a flock of doves, no larger than sugar crystals, flew past her vision. And then, it came.

            The sky boiled a tainted crimson as a meteor the size of a dresser tore a hole in the cosmos and betook the city. In a brilliant explosion of radiant lightning and evanescent laser beams, Star Force, He Who Devours the Horizon, erupted from his adamantine seal. The eldritch abomination resembled a star fish with leathery black skin and thick octopus tentacles for its five points. An eye rested in the center of its body, it’s tainted pupil marinating in a roiling stew of corrosive yellow. Each tentacle stretched two-thirds of Jackie’s height, their suction cupped posterior molesting each structure in its path.

            Jackie planted one foot forward and flung her whole body into a full force haymaker straight into the alien’s eye, hurling the monster into a row of buildings behind it. The weight of her punch rippled through her fist, the emulated sensation provided via the sensors dotting her body through advanced haptic feedback.

            The design philosophy behind Armored Phantasia was to recreate epic Kaiju battles in as realistic detail as possible, fully immersing players in a fight to save humanity from otherworldly threats. The goggles Jackie wore used advanced AR technology to project lifelike images of tiny-sized people and hellish entities onto a model city developed specifically in conjunction with the game. These same projections were shared with other units within the play area, including any tiny operated mechs, to create a seamless virtual reality between all players. From the Azure Dragon, Pierce watched Jackie’s fist collide with Star Force’s tumefied eye, the gooey membrane molding to her clenched fist.

            “Jackie, watch out!” Pierce cried out through their linked comms. Star Force’s north pointing tentacle lashed out at its attacker, smacking Jackie clean in the face. The ultra woman tumbled backwards, collapsing onto a high rise behind her. The building gave way to her falling body on impact, five stories crumbling beneath the weight of her butt. The model city was crafted out of breakaway plastic which was solid to the touch but shattered upon forceful impacts. The developers made good use of the material in making convincing yet easily destructible environments for their interactive experience, but the real innovation came in its semi-adhesive coating which allowed crumbled ruins to be put back together with no tools, glues, nor hassle necessary. This solved an early roadblock in the product regarding replayability; no one was going to buy a costly playset that only lasted a single session, but thanks to a special coating derived from a particular chemical reaction to the breakaway plastic, the model could easily be put back together in up to an hour’s time with no sticky residue nor loss of adhesion. “You good?”

            “Yep. I hope I didn’t squash anybody.” Jackie stood up over the rubble, brushing herself off. The sensors’ haptic feedback could generate major impacts, enough to knock someone off their feet, but they didn’t inflict lasting pain. The sensation was akin to getting shoved, and destroying buildings was about as painful as crumpling paper-mâché. Looking down at her unintentional demolition, Jackie noticed some tinies derezz. Though the tinies were lifelike, there was no gore or overly violent imagery, the game holding a T rating. Casualties were depicted with cartoony animations such as flattened tinies becoming thin as paper before derezzing. As a safety feature, any actual tinies that entered the play area not residing within a mech were highlighted a bright shade of red and were accompanied by a warning message on all players’ displays.

            “It’s fine. We only need to save 30% of them,” Pierce said, ignoring the canned screams filtering through the speakers. “I’ll provide some cover fire to distract him while you lay on the big damage.” Pierce jetted through the streets towards the imposing starfish, the feet of his mech equipped with wheels for zipping around. The AR goggles imprinted the image of flames roaring out from the mech’s exhausts as it thrusted forward. Pierce unleashed a bevy of machine gun fire on the gigantic creature, interspersing the barrage with potshots from the bazooka. His attacks did minimal damage, but they were successful in agroing the boss to target him, allowing Jackie to rush in and smack it down with a roundhouse kick.

             Star Force collapsed onto a couple high-rises. The weightless illusion was unable to actually demolish any of the model structures, explosion modifiers were planned to be released as a post-launch add-on, but cracks and other signs of damage appeared along the buildings through the AR display. Star Force took its time getting back up, vessel-like tendrils writhing out from its suction cups and wriggling their way through the cracks in the buildings.

            “Shit, it’s spawning zombies!” A sea of tiny undead burst out from the doors and windows, growling and clambering to wreak havoc. The hellish mass of minions were far faster than a regular tiny, swarming Pierce in seconds, clawing at his armor and dowsing him in acidic bile. In the upper left corner of his display, his health bar slowly dropped down as he took repeated hits.

            “I got you!” Jackie slammed her foot down into the crowd, squashing a dozen zombies into a comical explosion of orange and pink globs of flesh. Surrounding zombies climbed onto her foot and scratched at her, but the giant woman couldn’t feel a thing. Unlike the mechs, big players didn’t have health bars. Instead, their primary concern was the safety of the virtual population. Careless stomping and negligence towards small mobs would lower the survivor count, resulting in a game over; they also had to be careful about the boss’ attacks as those would send them tumbling into buildings and crushing more civilians. “Pierce, can you help me out here?”

            “Huh?” Pierce panned up from her foot and noticed the swarm ascending her ankle. “Oh, right!” Pressing the Ittō-ryū button, Pierce unsheathed one rod from his mech’s waist. A dazzling green light shot out from the futuristic hilt forming the beam sword’s blade to which Pierce swung in a wide arc around his suit, obliterating a swash of enemies surrounding him. Holding down two attacks buttons at once sheathed his saber and held his arm at his waist; releasing them sent him rocketing forward, baring his beam sword in the blink of an eye and annihilating the zombies swarming Jackie with an iai-slash.

            “Thanks.” Jackie brought her foot down on more zombies, mashing the horde into virtual viscera.

            “I can take care of these things. You focus on the boss,” Pierce suggested, his will to win trumping his desire for Jackie dispatch more enemies beneath her soles. He style-switched to Niten Ichi-ryū, wielding a second sword in the opposite hand.

            Far above, Jackie swung another punch as the monster reared its “head,” but whiffed hitting the squirming tentacle, sending her fist crashing into a nearby skyscraper and reducing the inside toy furniture into a jumbled trash heap. “Sorry!” she said to the digital lives lost to her attack. Star Force wrapped one of its tentacles around the giantess’ waist and slammed her into the tower, her body not only decimating the skyscraper but the rest of the block behind it as well as she tripped onto the unfortunate offices and apartments. Jackie pushed herself off the ground and winced at the debris peppering her chest, belly, and waist, and the tinies plastered to her torso. “Aw man, are we still above 30%?”

            “For now,” Pierce replied, bisecting zombies in a flurry of stabs and cuts, “but the zombies are spreading. I can’t keep up with them.” Seeing Pierce continue to fight against impossible odds, Jackie centered herself and got back up. Facing her opponent, the giantess raised both fists before her face and ducked and weaved. She stepped forward and let out a barrage of jabs. One, two. One, two. Jab, jab, upper! “Woah, you box?”

            “Only if you count maining Steve Fox in Tekken.” Each blow sent the monster reeling back, cornering it against a block of skyscrapers where Jackie could really lash out on it. She punched and kicked at the ethereal construct, the haptic sensors tricking her brain into thinking she was touching a solid object. In her unrelenting assault, the monster’s health quickly diminished, dropping as hastily as the amount of time left on the clock. But Star Force was far from finished. Its westward tentacle spiraled and constricted until it took the form of a drill, launching the appendage towards its assailant. Jackie, mid-punch, couldn’t react fast enough to dodge, the drill point headed straight for where her brow met the bridge of her nose.

            Slash

            Flying through the air like a blazing comet, the Azure Dragon sliced clean through the tentacle with four of its laser blades in hand. The mech’s head nodded to Jackie, and she responded with a wink, circling around the wailing monster and locking its remaining limbs in a standing full nelson. Pierce activated Rokutō-ryū, equipping all six swords, one between each gap of the robot’s fingers. In a dance of radiant death, Pierce carved away at the monster. The creature writhed in Jackie’s grip, but she held strong, holding the starfish in place as Pierce turned it into sashimi. The boss didn’t have a visible health bar, but the damage portrayed on its character model suggested it was nearly defeated with only a minute remaining on the clock.

            “Just a little more!” Pierce shouted, mashing every button combo he could think of. “Just a little…” but he was interrupted by a new message on the display: [NEW MISSION PRIORITY] - Rescue the President!

            Down at the other end of the street, a tiny man in a blue suit and red tie dangled precariously out of a window fifteen stories up. The building itself was on fire, a furious inferno blazing out of the windows accompanying black billowing smoke. Jackie looked back and forth between the leader of the free world and her teammate, unsure how to react to the sudden change of circumstances.

            “Go save him!” Pierce advised. “This thing’s almost dead. I can handle it on my own. Go!” Jackie followed his command and released the monster, darting towards the other end of the model city. Star Force immediately regained its composure and swung at the flying mech, but Pierce narrowly dodged the strike. Jackie reached the burning building and plucked the president off the windowsill. Thirty seconds remained.  

            What do I do with him? What do I do? Jackie thought, turning every which way to determine her next objective. The president attempted to maintain balance in her palm and dribbled on about how grateful he was and how Jackie performed a great service for her country and that he would reward her a Medal of Honor when he got back to the White House and some other stuff probably; Jackie wasn’t really listening. On a nearby high-rise, a bright green square bordered the roof, a helicopter hovering over the building. Jackie dropped off the president nowhere near as gently as she would a real person, letting him fall a good ten feet onto the cement roof, but the videogame NPC took no damage and safely reached the helicopter.

            Fifteen seconds remained. Jackie returned her attention to the alien starfish. Pierce had landed a plethora of hits, and the thing was certain to go down with one final attack. “Pierce, you got this!” Jackie cried out running towards the action. In its last fit of desperation, Star Force lunged two tentacles at the Azure Dragon, but Pierce outmaneuvered both of them. With his six swords readied, Pierce lunged towards the creature, ready to take the thing down once and for all. But the moment he reached its bulging eye, his blades vanished and his propulsion ceased. He had used up all his energy, his bar fully depleted.

            “No! Not now!” The Azure Dragon plummeted towards the ground, now entirely inoperable. “I was one hit away!” Star Force’s tentacles rebounded, returning from behind to strike down Pierce. They collided with the mech, leaving it only a single pip of health.

            “Pierce! No!” Jackie ran as fast as she could. Three seconds remained. Pierce’s mech, a smoking, flaming mess, was headed for a ravenous horde of zombies. It wouldn’t survive the fall, its last hit point to be lost the moment it met a zombie’s claw. Jackie didn’t have time to save him. One more hit was all it would take to defeat Star Force. As fast as she could run, she had just nary a window to deal a final blow to the monster and complete the level, at the cost of her friend’s life. Jackie ran harder than she ever had before.

            “Do it, Jackie! Kill this son of a bitch once and for all!” With a few button presses, Pierce dropped the drained hilts of his beam swords and gave a defiant thumbs up as he descended to his certain demise.

            One second remained. Jackie had no choice. She dove in front of Star Force and grabbed the Azure Dragon out of the air, holding it tightly to her chest as she fell to the ground, sliding across the street and decimating a horde of zombies with her back and shoulder. Zero seconds remained. [MISSION FAILURE].

            With the game over, all the AR projections vanished, including any illusory damage to the Azure Dragon. Jackie eased her hold on the mech and kept it cradled in her arms. “You’re safe,” she determined with heavy breath. “That was close.”

            “Thanks?” Pierce said from the safety of his cockpit. Jackie’s face and chest took up the entirety of his display. “But we could have won if you attacked the boss instead. Player deaths don’t affect the mission results.” Jackie set the toy robot on the ground and pouted, a little peeved by her friend’s lack of gratitude. “You do realize I wasn’t actually in danger, right?”

            “I know that. But I couldn’t just abandon you.” Jackie walked over to her wedges and put them back on before returning to Pierce. She squatted in front of him, forgetting once again she was wearing a skirt, and held her hand out just below the mech’s torso. Pierce opened the cockpit’s hatch and walked onto her hand, avoiding meeting her crotch’s gaze.

            “Well, that dive was pretty sick. And you came in clutch stomping those zombies. And you should really consider picking up boxing.” Pierce waited while Jackie lifted him to her shoulder. Her palms were sweaty and her face flush red, obviously from all the physical activity. “So, thanks.” Pierce took a seat on the white cloth of Jackie’s shirt. Her chest heaved with every breath, glistening in sweat. This time, Jackie caught the tiny man staring, but she decided to let it slide. Walking out of the play area, she strolled through the devastated street as a team came in to set things up for the next in line. Trying to stay out of their way, Jackie stepped to the side, catching her wedge on a wayward chunk of debris. She tripped on the plastic bobble, her upper body lurching forward and sending Pierce tumbling off her shoulder and into her collar. As a matter of instinct, Jackie reached her hand out and caught the tiny before he could lose himself in the forbidden valley.

            Shit! Jackie thought. That was my chance!

…

            After a long day attending panels, fooling around in the arcade, buying Blu-ray boxsets and artbooks, and ordering too much kimchi at the Korean barbeque place down the street, Jackie and the others returned home from the con. The larger twin stood outside her dorm room holding Pierce in her hand. Lynn had sequestered with Alena in the latter’s dorm, wanting to make full use of the tiny’s costume before she took it off.

            “You sure you don’t want a lift home?” Jackie asked. “I don’t mind.”

            “Nah, I'll be fine. Long drives at night are cathartic for me.” The two stared at each other for a while, knowing what they wanted to say but having no clue how best to say it.

            “I had a lot of fun today.” Jackie tucked her dyed hair behind her ear with her free hand.

            “Same here,” Pierce replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he struggled to figure out what to do with them.

            ‘We should do this again sometime’ Just say, ‘We should do this again sometime.’ Jackie concentrated so hard on keeping her hand from shaking that she couldn't form words, her cheeks fidgeting as she attempted to remain still. Just the two of us. Together. Doing something.

            This is it. Ask her now. This is the best chance I'm ever going to get. Pierce kept getting distracted by minor details, like how there was a near invisible hair growing out of one of Jackie's freckles just below her left eye. Or maybe I should wait five seconds. Maybe that's the best time. 

            Is it rude to ask him out like this? Her eyes darted between him, the floor, a crack in the drywall, back to him, back to the floor. He's stuck there on my hand. Trapped. Unable to get off without injuring himself. What if he thinks I'm trying to coerce him? Even if he said yes, would it just be because of the implication?

            Shit, it's been ten seconds. I'm too late. She'll think I'm a weirdo if I ask now.

            I should say something. It's been quiet for too long. He definitely thinks I'm weird. 

            Why even bother? She's going to say no. There's no way I'm good enough for her, not in a million years.

            What would Lynn say if she were here? A chibi Lynn with shark teeth and devil horns popped into Jackie’s imagination. ‘Why fret over asking him out? Just shove him down your pants, you pussy! That’d make for the best day in this dork’s miserable life.’

            Screw it! I gotta take the shot. I'm gonna ask her. “Hey, um…”

            “Yeah?”

            “Are you going to put me down?”

            “Oh, right!” Jackie lowered her hand gently to the floor and waited for Piece to step off. “My bad.”

            “See you in class tomorrow,” he waved, beginning his trek down the hallway.

            “See ya.” Jackie stepped into her dorm, closing the door behind her.

            Slowly making his way through the massive hallway, Pierce was filled with a sense of contentment. Today had been a good day, spending time with friends, making memories that would last a lifetime. Sure, it would have been nice if him and Jackie had beaten that level, but maybe they'd have another chance when the full thing released. Of course, he couldn't afford it, and even if he could, it wasn't like he had the space to fit a tiny city in his already tiny house. And it's not like Jackie could fit it in her cramped dorm room. Realistically, their only hope would be if Heather happened to buy it and invited them over to play the game. But she'd have to do that of her own volition. Pierce couldn't ask her to buy cool stuff for him, that'd be abusing their friendship, and he was certain she had plenty of “friends” that only really cared about her infinite wealth, and he was determined not to end up as one of them. It was nice of her to cover everyone's tickets today, though. Everybody else seemed to have a good time too. Even Lynn, who claims to not be into this sort of stuff, absolutely slayed her cosplay. And Javi must have had a blast spending some personal time with Heather. And Alena looked like she was in paradise, even when she was fussing over Lynn. Today had been a good day. Pierce made it past two other dorm rooms before he pulled out his phone and called Javi.

            “Dude, I fucked up!”

            “What happened?” Javi asked as if prepared for this call.

            “I had the perfect opportunity to ask her out, and I fucking flaked.” Fortunately, no one else was around to overhear the panicking tiny.

            “Calm down. How long ago was this?”

            “A few minutes ago.”

            “Alright. You're going to hang up on me and call her immediately. Don't waste time with small talk or pleasantries. Pop the question as soon as she picks up.”

            “What if she doesn't pick up?” Pierce asked.

            “Don't leave a message. Just hang up and wait for her to call back. If she doesn't call back, you're in God's hands.”

            “I don't know about this. What if she thinks…”

            “You don’t know what she thinks! And you never will until you ask her. Now, do exactly what I said or you're going to regret this moment for the rest of your life.” Javi hung up.

…

            Jackie slumped against her door, burying her face into her knees. “Gaahhh! What is wrong with me?” A storm of emotions brewed within her: anger at herself for being gutless, regret over failing to get what she wanted, envy that her sister made this look so easy, and fear that Pierce secretly hated her despite her inability to formulate a rational reason why he would.

He's still in the building, she thought. It'll take him at least ten minutes to walk out. I have plenty of time to catch up to him. She sat by the door and fantasized about rushing to his side, asking him to go out with her, and whisking him away to some coffee shop which would inevitably become their spot on the start of a long and immaculate relationship. Instead of following her heart, Jackie trudged into her kitchen, grabbed a jar of peanut butter and a large spoon, and shoveled the sweet spread straight into her mouth.

            Jackie nearly dropped her spoon at the chirping of her ringtone. As soon as she saw the call was from Pierce, she answered it, not even letting the call finish the first dial tone. “Hahwo? *Gulp* *hack*” Jackie pounded at her chest in an attempt to choke down the glob of peanut butter stuck in her throat. “Hey, what’s up? *gyek*”    

            “Th-th-that new Spider-Man movie comes out this Friday. Want to go out with me and see it?”

            Two seconds. The silence lasted for two whole seconds. And within those seconds, spanned an eternity. Adrift in the boundless sea of anticipation and anxiety, Pierce's soul wandered through the astral plain, searching, longing for anything that could anchor him back to the material world. Upon reaching the edge of reality and standing atop the altar of naught, Pierce found his keystone in Jackie’s response.

            “Yeah, I’d love to. Let’s figure out a time tomorrow.” Her words resonated as if spoken by the Bodhisattva, guiding the wayward Pierce down the path to enlightenment.

            “Cool. See ya tomorrow, then.”

            “Bye.” Out in the hallway, Pierce fell to his hands and knees, crashing back down to Earth after his brief ascension to Heaven. To say he felt exalted would be putting it lightly. Pierce pulled his phone out and called his best friend.

            “What’d she say?” Javi asked.

            “Yes!”

            “Hell yeah.”

            Inside her dorm, Jackie jumped into her bed, laughing into her pillow and kicking against the mattress. The raging storm of emotions subsided, a ray of happiness piercing the clouds.