Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Yes, the 110% plan was a sales campaign. No, no.. not a sales campaign – a joke.
Fixing micros turned out to be much easier when approaching it properly. The next day Nicole came in and told the remaining three zones to gather up in the cities even explained them how she needs to evacuate them. Of course there was no time for any details. The first went surprisingly easily just several stomps and drags of her shoes for each larger city and population went down from one and a half million to several hundred micros in minutes. The remaining ones turned out to be nearby making them easy targets - or perhaps they just killed themselves. The second zone with a bit over two millions was a bit more problematic but mainly due to more scattered towns and various rivers around. Nicole did not want to repeat the disaster from yesterday.
Yes, she hardly got any sleep spending the half the night and the entire morning trying to clean that mess up. Of course the hygiene pods were useless and Nicole had to find some zone with fresh water to wash herself. She allocated a new empty one no point wasting any more micros, after all. It still seemed like each pore and tiniest wrinkle of her skin contained bits of mud. She could see it in the mirror just barely others shouldn't notice.. at least provided she doesn't have to get personal with anybody soon. Even the most stubborn pieces should break off over time.
So there she is, carefully clearing the two zones down to zero in the early afternoon. Nicole heard it will take for micros in the third one much longer to gather up for the evacuation - they were actually the only ones who even asked how long they have, which puzzled Nicole a bit. She wanted to finish it up by the end of the day so she wouldn't have to bother herself any longer and finally concluded that several hours should be fine. She was certain it would take her at least this much to deal with the other two.
And that last one was.. really big. Well, it was actually the second zone Nicole has visited, but left it for the end since... she could understand it may take them more time to move nine and a half million micros. It takes them forever too accomplish anything, but this... Well, at least it would be quick when they gather if she tried to fix them like yesterday, that last zone alone would have taken the entire day.
While looking for the last survivors, she thinks how wasteful all this is. They could be so much more useful to Nicole in her own zones.. she checked in the morning how the clothes are coming up and of course the micros were behind but after some convincing they figured it should be possible to complete it more quickly. The micros must have simply been lazy she gave them a bit of incentive and they immediately started working much faster.
But still.. Nicole wouldn't mind if she had more of them and the last zone was just... full of micros. They had cities, farms and various installations all over the place. She had never seen anything like this there was so much factories in there. Erica must have been producing her clothes in that zone why get rid of it then? It doesn't make any sense.
Come to think of it, her mother never told her to kill them all Erica only wanted them clear. That implied what needs to be done, based on their conversation and explanations, but.. that last zone was easily bigger than all five others combined! If Nicole could sneak some of them out.. perhaps just a couple million nobody would notice, right?
Thinking about it, Nicole is almost certain Erica would know. Her mother found out about Nicole stealing some of her micros when she was a kid and the second still has no idea how she even managed to accomplish that. She sometimes tried to convince herself it was just a bluff, but.. Erica knew the details. How many of them she took and that she killed them all a guess like that would be too lucky. Her mother must have had some way of tracking her, spying on what her daughter was doing.
But what if it wasn't her? Maybe if she could arrange something with Amber to come along and take some micros... No, Erica only gave Nicole the privileges to access the zones. Perhaps just quickly sneak them out to one of the Amber zones? Nicole could always say that she wanted to visit her friend in a middle of the job, how could Erica check that she smuggled some micros? Or even better to some new empty zone if her mother discovers it, she can always finish them off in there without any collateral damage.
And getting caught would be bad.. Reputation aside, Nicole has heard about some ways the zones can be taken away from the owner mothers didn't want to elaborate on that further, but the rumor was that when Lisa and Lauren continued to behave rudely in the other mother's zones just after they split them up, Erica threatened that they may take some of their own micros away as a compensation. There must be something more to the zones ownership that they are telling us Nicole concludes.
What if Erica could see the details on Nicole's zones had? If any of them had a sudden increase of population just when she was supposed to be clearing those six zones.. it would easy to figure out what must have happened. It is just a feeling, but Nicole thinks that conspiring with Amber may help her to avoid getting caught if she moved them to the other second zone maybe nobody would notice? It would be best if she allocated a new one just in case Nicole was forced to finish the micros after all.
It makes sense and is definitely worth the risk, so Nicole sends her a mesg to do exactly that but without any details now. It would be best to explain everything face to face well, obviously not everything, but at least enough to shut the other second up. Either way Nicole still has several dozen stubborn micros to get rid of, before she can go check up on that big zone. At least there are no seas here it was really annoying.
While looking around for the survivors, she wonders how will she transport the micros. Do they have any containers inside? It is annoying how she needs to think about such things in advance they should have prepared for this or at least figured out a way to construct them quickly. Maybe it was what they needed so much time for? Anyway, she can always grab some from her own zones she wasn't prepared for this either and is unsure how many transporters are left. It would be great even if she was able to only take two million or so.. still a lot of fun for months to come. Amber was becoming increasingly reluctant about killing the micros too quickly, but this will surely cheer her up.
Nicole needs to check the last zone first to see if they have any containers inside, as traveling between her zones and that one would be conspicuous. Just like moving between the zone and one of Amber's... One teleportation could be easy to explain she even got a mesg from her in the morning, it would be understandable she wanted to chat with her friend.. especially given how tedious the cleaning up was.
Maybe she should give Amber heads up to come up with some transporters? A lot of possibilities... No, Nicole needs her actions to be plain enough not to arouse suspicion. Or at least seem innocent enough to allow her to blame her ignorance. Any more sophisticated plan would be taken the wrong way.
Well, it's not like it could possibly be good stealing micros is always considered insulting and abusive, but... she should be able to reason that she didn't want all of them to waste. Have some fun with her friends definitely much better excuse than I figured this elaborate scheme not to be noticed...
Especially that Amber would have probably done the same. Well, she would have had much more fun inside, instead of focusing on completing the task. Nicole thinks how what for her was more of a tedious necessity would probably greatly excite most of the others. She was usually approaching their fun as a chance to talk and bond with or learn about other caretakers...
Even the brief fun with the city was bleak in comparison to the frustrations that came later she should have never allowed the micros to spread out. What did Amber see in this anyway all structures were so fragile, almost broke apart at the slightest touch. She had to be ridiculously careful to even lift them up.. how pointless it turned out to be... And she still has no idea what the firsts see in tasting the micros it was all dirt, they all probably died long before she could feel their movements. And not to mention the more creative ways of consuming them why even bother, it was so much better to play with the micros instead. Of course when they are used, they have to be disposed...
But the disaster was yesterday, she learned a lot and now the second zone is cleared as well so it's time to move to the last one. Just before teleporting, Nicole changes her mind and moves through two of her larger zones to collect transporters the more micros she can salvage, the better. Amber has already replied that she is ready and attached the coords.
All is set then - Nicole concludes to herself and wonders - do I really want to go through with this?
It wouldn't technically be disobeying her mother, but.. she knows what clearing the zones meant and could see that Erica noticed that she knew. Especially after Nicole's inquiry if this has to be done on the same day the answer was all like not at all, take your time... Was this a test? Was Erica trying to check whether her daughter will follow her orders even though they don't make sense? Or perhaps Nicole is being tried for the ability to make her own choices, like an adult? Or yet another strange idea that Erica thought up?
She already gave up yesterday on analyzing her mother's motives.. and now concludes that whatever it was, she has no way to be sure and at least can try to benefit from this assignment. Maybe she stopped tracking Nicole after the first five zones were cleared? If Erica only wanted the micros gone, she could much more easily finish the task herself, why bother with extra supervision...
Entering the zone, she is once again surprised on how almost every available spot is covered with their stuff most of it was their farms, but Nicole can see them stretched out everywhere, unlike any other zone she has seen. She is even able to distinguish various industrial facilities they were usually a bit larger than the homes and some here are as large as half an inch long and wide blocks. Others are organized in various complexes and many expel smoke or some other form of pollution, although Nicole isn't sure what that is she heard about it.. somewhere. And she was never sure what is the purpose of the taller buildings.. they were so fragile easily crumbling from the clumsy footsteps alone. Why would the micros even bother putting them up?
Either way, all this stuff inside and the population cames to less than ten million.. maybe Kate really has about twenty million micros, like she spoke? They simply wouldn't fit inside, Nicole thinks. It doesn't matter she arrives in an isolated spot and approaches the nearby headphone. At least the wire is fairly long and she can use it while crouching down why haven't Erica told the micros in all her zones to produce devices like this one? Perhaps these are more complicated or she simply didn't bother... after all how often would she talk to them? Nicole cannot recall Erica actually talking to any of her micros even the idea that one could do it came from Kate a long time ago.. or perhaps from Rachel in school?
But now it doesn't matter, since she hears they are almost ready and are boarding the last transporters. Sweet, let's get going then - she comments their apparent preparedness, completely ignoring their inquires to the nature of the threat stupid micros always want to know everything. They already asked about that when she arrived the first time and she replied they can wait and see for themselves.. really annoying but at least most of the micros listened to her request. For a brief moment Nicole thinks if stealing all of them is a good idea, but.. a million or two is just as bad as nine, so she should hope that Erica never discovers it.
Before collecting the transporters, Nicole mesgs Amber to stay put and say nothing when she arrives they will talk about it later. She thinks how to explain such act one doesn't bring nine million micros as a gift every day...
It turns out even holding all transporters at once is fairly problematic Nicole hopes their fields amortizers will hold them safe.. They all need to be very careful when handling micros. Any quick move would turn them into paste and that wouldn't be very useful. Well, in the worst case she will simply finish her assignment.
After visiting half of the cities, she already has her left hand full and is forced to pile the containers up in the middle. Normally they range from one sixth of an inch for smaller forty or fifty thousand versions to even a third inch capsules with various shapes and colors, usually cubical or similar for the ease of handling. These transporters were definitely the larger ones, like two or three hundred thousand each or more.. and there were dozens of them.
While collecting them from the cities, Nicole checks on her wristcom if there are larger groups of micros left around but most of them seems to have boarded the transporters. Good she thinks it will make it so much easier to finish it up later. At least she can pay no attention to the towns underfoot while moving around they should have evacuated them already and she will need to go back for any stragglers anyway.
Slowly rising from collection in the last city, Nicole looks at the mesg from Amber again and programs the coords for the new zone. She is very careful since any rash move now can crush many of the transporters or send them falling down to the ground and even despite it would take minutes for them to reach ground, any attempts to catch it would result in crashing it completely. The only way for caretakers to move micros at all is to rely on the acceleration modifiers of her own dilation fields, apparently a side-effect of some ancient mechanisms set up for different purpose Rachel tried to explain it to them in school in more detail, but all Nicole needs to know is that they're effectively lost as soon as they part from her hand.
And it was hard not to drop them it took her a couple minutes to crouch down and stand up each time, holding down the transporters softly with her right hand the bottom ones sat more comfortably in the other, but the upper layers moved around if not pinned. They should definitely make them larger - she thought - this is ridiculous. Once packed up, Nicole teleports to the Amber's zone and notices her friend far away but she should disembark the micros first, rather than walk around.
The zone seems to be just a normal one, mostly land with some water around and.. yuck, clouds. Nicole hates the little puffs around her knees most of the colonized zones haven't that got many of them. Hopefully the micros can fix them quickly here for their own sakes.. they obstruct the ground view from above and are tedious to walk around. Not to mention they tend to wet her clothes, which would annoy Nicole greatly and especially now, after the problems in that watery zone yesterday... which had plenty of them, for whatever reason.
Fortunately her immediate area is mostly clear of clouds and after crouching down carefully, Nicole starts moving the transporters onto the ground quickly wiping some plants to make room first. New zones seem to be full of them. Halfway done, she notices Amber several feet in front of her the footsteps already immediately audible. Nicole looks up to see her uncertain expression scanning the containers.
She doesn't want to be overly joyful in front of the micros even if Amber does her best not to push the micros towards suicides, it's still fairly likely the zone will end up this way. That's why Nicole needs to seem friendly enough to rescue them later, just in case. Amber may have learned a thing or two, but she is still Amber...
Clearing her hand, Nicole realizes she didn't bring any communication device so she simply explains the micros that Amber here should take care of them now and they can leave the containers to build up. The other second seems quite surprised and uncertain what to do, so Nicole signals her to leave the zone. The explanation would give the micros too many details of what just happened.
When in facility, she mesgs Amber to meet up in her quarters where she appeared back from the zone and waits. After not even a minute, she hears nervous knock and lets Amber in. She is still confused, so Nicole starts:
Do you like it?
Whoa, Nicole.. where did you get it? - yes, the obvious question.. although Nicole was hoping she would thank her first...
Oh, I know a place, aren't you grateful? - telling Amber the truth would be bad.
But.. um.. sure, just.. nine million micros? - she adds whispering.
Look, the source doesn't matter but I'd prefer if you didn't tell anybody... - it's very important to keep this fact to themselves. After considering it for half a minute, Amber continues her inquiry, unsure about this last question:
Did you steal them? - that obvious, huh?
No... It's a long story, but technically it's more like I saved them - yeah, from herself... but then she realizes it's actually more like from Erica - Look, it doesn't matter as long as it remains our secret. Can you keep it?
Yeah, of course.. Gee, Nicole... I don't know what to say...
Thanks would do nicely.. - instead Amber jumps into her arms and hugs her. It takes Nicole completely by surprise at first although it is a nice thing for her friend to do. But Nicole doesn't want her to see traces of mud around her face, she quickly backs away and speaks:
But it's really important you should not even tell anybody where you got them from, understand?
Of course, Nicole.. thanks. - she still seems a bit puzzled and adds after several seconds adds - But.. why me?"
We're friends, that's why.. - she bluffs, Amber is probably the only person Nicole could use for this but she apparently bought it and just smiles.
It really means a lot, I.. would you like to have some fun? - Amber proposes seductively. Tempting as the offer is, Nicole still needs to finish up the survivors and report to Erica to keep the illusion of her simply finishing the assignment. Not to mention that if her mother senses anything is wrong with it, she will need to quickly dispose of the micros in Amber zone which would be bad for their friendship.
Well, not really.. I'm already tired and... I still have some things left to do - but Nicole needs to change the subject, so she adds - but enough about the micros, how's your day?
Amber still seems a bit confused, like she would like to suggest or tell her something more, but eventually just answers - Good, good.. we've been working on my zone. Me and Kate, that is.. and she helped a lot, I think - whatever it means, it can wait, so Nicole tries to conclude:
Oh, that's nice.. things are alright between you two then? - the worst thing would be if the two seconds forgave each other everything. It would diminish Nicole's influence on them. Fortunately she can already see it's not the case, since Amber would speak more openly.
Well, sort of.. I suppose - she concludes, which sounds great.
So can I expect no more furious explosions from you? - this would be the only problem right now. It seems her idea to have this get-together yesterday was a complete success. Nicole cannot have her breaking everything apart now, but Amber doesn't answer and even looks away. Nicole hurries her - Well? - it is really important to make sure no more incidents happen in the near future.
Amber looks at her annoyed and speaks - You have no idea what you're talking about! - what can she mean? Is she denying what happened two weeks ago?
What do you mean? - Nicole inquires, which really seems to anger the other second but Amber just stands there for a minute or more and Nicole figures she better try to calm her - Look, I really don't...
Amber interrupts her - I should leave.. you're busy today and I already took enough of your time.. - seems to have calmed down on her own - Thanks for the micros, I really appreciate it... - then stands in Nicole's room for a brief moment and turns around to leave.
Wait, Amber.. - Nicole feels this is more important than her assignment, or at least that the stupid micros can wait - I'm your friend, remember? But I cannot help you if I don't know what's wrong... - the other second stops in her tracks, but doesn't look back - Why don't we talk about it? Just between the two of us.. - this should help her keep the gift secret as well. Nicole is becoming worried if it was a good idea to bring the micros to her in the first place...
But Amber turns around to face her and seems to consider what to do remembering the hug, Nicole realizes she should not have pulled away too quickly.. but maybe she could fix it now? Amber is the one to be reluctant this time, but they embrace again in silence just like friends, Nicole thinks. Amber seems to trust her, but she needs to start the confession in her own time, without any inquiries or hurrying.
It takes a couple minutes, but eventually she speaks nervously - Two weeks ago... it was her who exploded and assaulted me...
Her... Kate? - Nicole is shocked, moving her head back to see Amber while still holding her.
Yes. In her zone, out of nowhere... - and continues to explain what happened. Nicole finds it hard to believe at first, but.. They never stated it was Amber who started whatever happened, Nicole simply assumed it since Kate was always so nice and shy. For her to attack somebody... it seemed crazy but Amber is really troubled and nervous now. And what would she possibly have to gain by lying about this?
Well, Nicole can think of several things, but Amber never cared about her reputation and other reasons weren't enough to justify such move. Especially given that Kate would most likely deny it but it's curious how she never explained it more clearly herself. Perhaps parts of what Amber is saying are true? Yes, Nicole has been putting this topic aside for long enough she needs to talk with Kate and..
No, first calm Amber down, make sure she feels safe with her - I'm so sorry for not seeing this earlier - whatever the truth is, there is no point in showing doubt now - Why didn't you come to me with this on your own?
Amber looks puzzled was it too soon? Or was it actually a fake confession? Nicole wants to change the topic, but the other second answers:
I don't know.. I was afraid of her and worried that nobody would believe me.. - she got that one right... - I.. it's crazy, sometimes I'm not even sure if it really happened or if I hallucinated it...
Hey, it's okay.. I believe you - Nicole tries to comfort her, she will need to get to the bottom of this if it's really true, it would be a great way to blackmail Kate.. when necessary. Nicole hopes it doesn't get to this, but it's better to know such things than not and it seems Amber is more calm and friendly again.
But you can't tell anybody, especially Kate.. I.. Two weeks ago she ordered me not to talk about this, I... - this must be really troubling her.
Nicole is shocked again and the answer comes naturally - Has she.. threatened you later as well? - Amber looks into her eyes as if considering what to answer. Regardless of the reasons for it, she cannot have Kate behaving like that.. what if she assaults Nicole next?
No she apologized and I even think she didn't mean it like that in her zone. But please don't tell her. She'll hate me for sharing it!
This is definitely a problem, at least there is a chance they got better since the.. Kate's outburst it still seems hard to believe. But how to be sure about this? Asking her directly wouldn't work, Kate was smarter than that no, Nicole should hang out with the other seconds more often and pay close attention to what is happening between them. It seems she was completely wrong yesterday and expected reverse emotions from them was Kate's unusual awkwardness caused by that assault? It would make sense, but:
You're sure she didn't insinuate anything or bully you in the two weeks since she.. attacked you? - Nicole must be sure that Kate is calm now, any incident with her would be bad. She was worried about something happening with Amber, but if was actually Kate that started it...
She hasn't - Amber admits - Look, it was just that one thing and she also feels guilty about this.. I shouldn't have told you about this...
Hey, it's good you explained it.. we're friends, remember? - Nicole tries to comfort her - Did you mention she met up with you today as well?
Yeah. We were just talking and she helped me with micros a bit before she went to fix herself before talking with Lauren... - and stops as if realizing that she told Nicole too much. Typical Amber never knows when to stop babbling.
And Lauren, huh? Kate surely wants to show off her new dress and regardless of the fact that she got her zone weeks before Nicole, everybody will remember it was Kate who made her clothes earlier. It was the same with the firsts although it took Kimberly several months to come up with anything... Nicole thought she had more time, but it didn't seem that hard after four weeks her dress was almost done, even though she used two zones to manufacture the main pieces and two others for smaller things. It was the zone working on the top one that the micros were complaining in although it looked ready, they moaned and bitched how it still needs some more work.
But now... Nicole cannot let Kate beat her in this she was so close! No, there must be a way perhaps the micros are only playing for time and the dress could be used already. She needs to check it and as for this visit.. perhaps Amber knows something more? They stand in front of each other in silence while still holding their hands. Should Nicole reassure her again? Amber seems good now, but you just never know:
Don't worry then, I'm sure it'll be alright.. and Amber if she ever does anything like this again... you don't have to hide anything from me - this should do it.
Thanks, it means a lot.. and I will... - Amber replies, visibly more self-confident.
But now.. I still need do finish up some things and I think you should see how those new micros are doing.. - Nicole suggests and the other second nods casually. Of course she doesn't care about the micros now but needs to get Amber out of here, but.. - Just one last thing before you go.. has Kate spoken anything more about her visit to Lauren?
What? Oh, no she didn't say much.. only that Lauren wanted to speak with her... - Amber looks confused but it doesn't seem like she's hiding anything. Probably is still worried about Kate which is good, Nicole should be able to use it to her advantage later.
But now they part their ways and Nicole returns to finish that last zone thinking how to play this. She thought about trying to distract Kate.. but a meeting with a mother is always more important, she could dismiss Nicole easily. No, she needs to figure out some way to get to Lauren first, but she usually ignores everybody... Well, except other mothers, of course.
Perhaps Nicole could casually ask Erica about Lauren chatting with Kate? Her mother seemed to hate and fight anyone trying to affect the firsts. For whatever reason she cared much more about them than about Nicole or other seconds... No, cared is not the right word to describe it.. tutored them perhaps or conditioned... Nicole was surprised how the firsts themselves never seemed to notice it and neither did other mothers.. or perhaps they simply didn't care? Or was Nicole only imagining it?
Either way, maybe Erica will do something to stop Kate from showing off Nicole could use some more time. She needs to finish her assignment and report back, hopefully this swindle will remain unnoticed...
Chapter End Notes:
It's more of a plot filler chapter, to prepare the stage for future events and explain a couple things. I hope their thoughts and reactions are reliable - I'm trying to think what each character would do in any given situation and only tweak the external events beyond their control to guide the events, rather than making them act inconsistently. Is it making sense so far?
When it comes to the clouds – obviously generated artificially, but still require water vapor in the air and people in many chambers figured it would be best to try to limit the evaporation, to lower the risk of... well, obviously. In some places it is impossible though - it's not easy to cover some seas and such.
And as always – let me know what You think!
When it comes to the clouds – obviously generated artificially, but still require water vapor in the air and people in many chambers figured it would be best to try to limit the evaporation, to lower the risk of... well, obviously. In some places it is impossible though - it's not easy to cover some seas and such.
And as always – let me know what You think!