Part 5 - Plenty of Fish

"And here we are," said Rocio as she led Troy to a closed apartment door in the hallway. "Apartment 423. Home sweet home."

Troy watched as the dark-haired, curvy young Latina fumbled around in her purse, more than likely looking for her key. For a few seconds he stared at her face as she looked inside; she was a rather attractive young lady, and Troy was a bit surprised that she had accepted his offer to meet up, considering that his voice was likely just one of many vying for her attention. However, he did not meet her on MacroMeet. Troy had decided to make more use of the tools at his disposal and instead encountered her on the social networking app Tinder. They had met up at the park, and from there, they ate and walked a bit around downtown, before she brought him to her place. Throughout the evening, Troy wondered if her feet, hidden behind her brown pumps, were as attractive as the rest of her.

The truth was, Troy had no idea if she was into macro play at all; during their night out, the subject had not come up at all. In truth, all signs were pointing towards a one-night stand, but perhaps there was the chance that she'd remain in his life after? If so, perhaps Troy could slowly but surely get her to enjoy the same aspects of macro that he did.

Troy hoped that things played out in his favor.

Having located her key, Rocio used it to open the door. Both of them walked inside, and as she closed the door behind her, Troy took a quick look at her apartment, at what seemed to be the living room. It was rather small, especially compared to the one that he and Mitch shared. The curtains over the window were drawn; had she not had turned the light on beforehand, the apartment would have been in almost complete darkness.

"Nice place," Troy complemented.

"You think so?" Rocio responded as she walked past him. "I don't think it's that great, but it's all I can afford right now."

"Well, it's better than what some people have."

"I suppose." She shrugged. "I would like a bigger place, though."

"Anyway... Tonight was pretty nice so far. The last two weeks have been pretty hectic for me, so it's been nice to relax a little bit."

Rocio smiled. "Yeah, I hear you. I have a pretty intense job as well. You know, Walmart. Some of the people we get are just unbelievable."

"I try not to go to Walmart," Troy said. "It's a circus of hicks and hood rats. No offense."

Rocio shook her head. "Oh, I agree. At least the pay is kind of good. For a retail job, that is."

"Right... Have you been looking for something better?"

"Oh, definitely. I've been throwing out my resumé all over the place. Once I get a hit, Walmart can kiss my ass goodbye!"

Troy leaned a bit to his right and looked down at her hips. "They'd have a lot of space to put their lips on."

She chuckled. "Let's go in my bedroom, and you can get a peek at what Walmart will be dealing with."

Troy displayed an eager smile. "I was waiting for you to say that."

With Rocio in the lead, Troy followed her as she walked through the living room and towards a door on the further side. She opened it, revealing her bedroom, its interior somewhat illuminated by the streetlights outside through the exposed windows.

"Can you close the door?" she asked after the two had walked inside.

Troy did as she requested, and then watched as she stepped towards the windows, turning on a lamp on a nightstand in the process. After reaching the windows, she pulled down its shades, giving the couple privacy from the world outside. She turned and walked back towards him.

"I know it's kind of early," she said, "but I actually have to work tomorrow."

"I don't mind," Troy responded, before grabbing the back of her head and pulling her face towards his.

Their lips locked with each other's, after which Rocio wrapped her arms around Troy's chest as he did the same. The two of them stood there, passionately making out with each other for several seconds. Her lips were rather soft and luscious, feeling great against his own. So far, she did seem to be quite a catch; attractive face, appealing body, nice skin and hair, and cushy lips.

She pulled away from him. "Oh, let me take my shoes off."

'And thus, the final factor,' Troy thought to himself as she reached down and slipped her feet out of their pumps. He eagerly anticipated seeing if her peds were up to par with the rest of her.

...Turned out, they were not. Not in the least.

'Oh, what the fuck...!' Troy was aghast to see them afflicted with severe bunions and unkempt nails upon each of her stubby toes. It seemed that little effort had been made to maintain them; perhaps it was no wonder that she hid them behind close-toed shoes. In any case, they were definitely not feet that he wanted to be trampled and crushed underneath, nor did he want them anywhere near his face.

Troy did his best to hide his disgust and disappointment as she looked back up towards his face after completely removing her shoes.

"Now, where were we?" she said, smiling foxily at him.

Troy hesitated for a second or two, before responding. "Right here."

He stepped closer to her and began kissing her on the lips once more, this time gradually shoving her closer and closer towards her bed. Eventually, she fell backwards upon it, while he fell on top of her. All the while, they continued their lustful embrace.

'Guess it's a one-night stand after all,' Troy thought to himself as he started to remove her top.

~~~

Troy stepped into his apartment, closing the door behind him as he walked into the living room. Mitch was there, sitting on the couch while watching a movie on TV, more than likely through Netflix. His head turned and noted that his roommate had returned, before he reached to his left and picked up an Xbox One controller, using it to pause the movie.

"You're back early," Mitch said. "Did she chase you out when you said you liked feet?"

Troy shook his head. "Actually, I never brought it up. We just fucked, and then I left. She said she had to be up early for work tomorrow, so I respected that."

"Always the courteous man," Mitch said. "Are you going to see her again?"

"No."

"What!?" Mitch sounded shocked. "She was a babe! What was wrong with her?"

"She did seem like the total package, didn't she? Hot Mexican lady with a bangin' body. ...But there was one problem: her feet were jacked up."

"'Jacked up' how?"

"Bunion City. It's like her big toes were like at a 45-degree angle, maybe more. Her nails were also messed up." Troy found himself being disgusted just thinking about them. "I didn't find out until we were in her room and she took her shoes off. I haven't been that disappointed about a woman's feet since I saw Christina Hendricks'."

"Mm. It's amazing how such a small thing can be a total turn-off for some people. Oh well." Mitch shrugged.

"It's not a small thing for me. The girl has to have nice feet before I can even begin to consider throwing myself under them."

"Uh-huh. I'd have more sympathy for you, but you're making me go on a pig hunt."

"Eh. The sooner you get it done, the sooner you can stop complaining about it. Besides, June's gut wasn't so bad, was it?" June was the woman that Mitch had tried to set him up with the week before. "I bet she couldn't wait to stuff you into her mouth."

"She still wants to meet you, though," Mitch said.

"Still not interested. I'm sure she'll find a chubby-chaser who's into her."

"Yeah, you're right. Anyway, what now? Are you gonna sit around all weekend again?"

"Well, no," Troy answered. "I actually have a tentative date planned for tomorrow. I'm gonna call tomorrow and make sure that we're still on."

"You find her on MacroMeet?" Mitch asked.

"No. She's another Tinder girl. Don't know if she's into macro, though. I wonder if I should bring it up?"

"Well, if you want to keep her around, you might as well ask her about it."

"True. She's a cutie, and I actually did see her feet in one of her pictures. The pic was a bit low-res, but I could tell they're much better than Rocio's at least."

"Rocio? Oh, the girl from tonight."

"Yeah," Troy said. "So if she's open to it, then I'm definitely going to have at her."

~~~

"Absolutely not!" snarled the short-haired blonde woman sitting across from Troy, at the restaurant table the two were sitting at.

Troy was rather taken aback at how stern Heather had answered his inquiry on her opinion on macro play. The date so far had already been unremarkable, but it seemed that he had finally found the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. Troy knew that from here, it was all downhill.

"I think it's disgusting," Heather continued, before shoving a fork full of pasta into her mouth. "Humans are humans, not bugs or food."

"Yeah, but it's just for fun," Troy rebutted. "No one's really taking it seriously."

"How can you not take the senseless killing of people for fun seriously?! Life isn't a game!"

"Well..." By now, Troy was regretting ever meeting with her. He wanted to end the date as soon as he could, but he had already paid for his food, so leaving now would be a waste of money. Luckily, the handful of other patrons in the establishment seemed to care little of their conversation, so he was spared of public embarrassment.

"An exfriend of mine tried the pill," she said, sticking and then spinning her fork into another bunch of pasta on her plate. "He tried to get some girl he liked to step on him, like he was some kind of bug. She eventually did it, but then he got addicted. He wouldn't leave her alone."

"So, what happened?" Troy asked.

"She called the police and got a restraining order on him. Of course, he violated it, and now he's in prison." She took the food on her fork into her mouth. "There's something in those pills... They mess up people's minds, and get them addicted to being killed. They need to ban it."

"Why? It's not harming anyone."

Heather glared at him. "Yes it is. It's a drug. It's making people have less regard for human life. It needs to be banned before they make an even worse version of it."

"Worse how?" Troy asked, almost legitimately curious to hear her response.

"Those pills shrink the person that swallows them. What if they make one that can shrink other people against their will? What if the same pill doesn't bring people back to life? People would have a much easier time kidnapping and killing people than ever before. Then would it be a game anymore?"

"I guess not..." Troy answered. "But the people who made the Minimizer pill want it to be used for recreational purposes. I don't think they'd make a pill that could be used for stuff like that."

Heather picked up her knife and began cutting into her beef sirloin with it and her fork. "Someone else could do it. They could mean for it to be used by the military, but you know that it's going to leak down into the hands of criminals. Do you REALLY want to give ISIS or al Qaeda something like that? Do you know what they'd do to us if they had that?"

"They'd literally stomp us all flat," Troy bluntly answered.

"Mm-hm." Heather nodded. "That's why it needs to be banned. We need to stop it before it goes too far, and we all wind up dead. And to stop people from pulling stunts like that old pervert who ran onto that playground."

Troy recalled that incident; it was rather sensationalized by the media and critics of the pill used it as more ammo in their crusade against it.

"The parents there stopped him before he got too close to the kids," Troy said. "Most people use the pill responsibly and only with consenting partners."

Heather started munching on the tender meat from her fork. After swallowing, she said, "There are things that even 'consenting' partners shouldn't be allowed to do."

'Oh my god, this girl is a nutcase,' Troy thought to himself. He looked down at his plate, much of the food originally served with it still on the plate. He had been so caught up in Heather's rant on the Minimizer pill that he had almost neglected to eat anything. The foul outing had almost made him lose his appetite.

"You use the pill too, don't you?" Heather asked him. "That's why you brought it up in the first place. You were seeing if I'd be okay with doing that macro nonsense with you, weren't you?"

Troy didn't see any point in lying to her; it was not like he was planning on seeing her again after that day. "Yeah. And I can draw the line between playtime and the real world."

"So you say," Heather said, in a tone that suggested that she didn't believe him. "I really hope you come to your senses and stop messing around with it. For the sake of your integrity."

Troy sighed, and picked up his fork to finally make a dent in his meal.

The rest of their date was filled with tense silence.

~~~

Troy sat on the couch in his apartment's living room, playing Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. It had been hours since his disastrous date with Heather, and with nothing else to do, he decided to make that Saturday night yet another night in which he spent at home. Even thinking about the date and how opposed Heather was to macro play or even the idea of other people enjoying it for themselves put him in somewhat of a foul mood. So, rather than focus on that, he decided to channel his anger into the video game.

Though perhaps he should count his blessings that he was presently not alone in the room: with him was a tall black-haired woman brought home by Mitch as part of their wager. As such, Kelly was overweight, however, she was not morbidly obese like the woman that he had tried to set Troy up with; in fact, it was more apt to call her "chubby". With her ovoid face, full lips, and large eyes, Troy felt that she would be quite attractive if she dropped a few dozen pounds; that was likely why Mitch chose her in the first place. Still, she was much bigger than the more slender women that Mitch usually ended up with.

She was also a gamer, and upon seeing that Troy was playing Smash, she asked if she could join in. Troy was somewhat relieved that he did not have to deal with online players, their antics, and the possible gameplay lag that would have only served to make him more upset.

On the screen, Troy's character, Marth, faced off against Kelly's Falco. Marth was a character that Troy had used since the Smash series' second game Super Smash Bros. Melee, and despite the changes made to Marth in the years since that overall reduced his power, Troy felt most comfortable playing as the arguably-feminine blue-haired swordsman over any other character in the game.

"You're pretty good," Kelly complemented. "A lot of people stopped playing Marth when they nerfed his range in this game."

"I've been playing Marth since I was 12," Troy replied. "I'm not going to drop him just because they weakened him."

From the air, Marth slashed downward on his avianoid adversary, hitting him with so much force that he bounced off of the ground. Immediately rolling to the left, Marth then slashed downward with a fierce swing of his sword, striking Falco with the tip--the sword's strongest point--and sending him flying off of the stage. Kelly uttered "Shoot!" as Falco was sent far past the outer edge of the screen, knocking him out and winning the match in Troy's favor.

"I knew I should have shielded that," Kelly said. "That would have been an awesome punish."

"Not if I countered it," Troy responded.

"I think I'll need someone faster," she said, as the game's result's screen transitioned to the character select screen.

"I hope you're not thinking about Sheik," Troy said, having grown tired of the ninja-like character being used against him by Mitch and others.

"Oh, no," she responded. "I actually don't like Sheik."

On the screen, she moved her player token over Greninja, a blue frog-like Pokemon with its long pink tongue wrapped around its neck, and selected it.

Kelly smiled. "I should warn you: Greninja's my main."

Troy gave a short laugh of eagerness. It was not often that his opponents chose to use the frog ninja against him. "I'm looking forward to-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a small bluish light appeared on the center of the coffee table in front of them. After taking a vague human form, it soon disappeared, leaving in its place Mitch, his 1-inch body regenerated after being eaten alive by Kelly. Both Troy and Kelly watched as the tiny man, his body bare of all clothing except his boxer briefs, shifted his eyes from one to the other.

"Having fun?" Mitch asked Troy, speaking loudly so that he could hear the words coming from his small mouth. "You were pretty pissed off earlier, but you seem to have lightened up."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Troy told his minuscule roommate. "How was your journey to the center of Kelly?"

"Not bad." Mitch turned to face Kelly. "You really have a way with us morsels. I kind of like it."

Troy found his enthusiasm a bit jarring. 'You're not supposed to like it,' he thought in his mind. 'This is supposed to be horrible to you.' Though perhaps if given the choice, Kelly was as big as Mitch was willing to go. Maybe Troy should screen his next catch before he brings her home.

Kelly reached over and picked him up from the table, bringing him closer to her face. Troy watched as his limbs hung low, his eyes giving her his utmost attention. Troy had read various macrophile stories in which such an action would cause the tiny to panic and struggle to free himself, especially if the giantess holding him was malicious in nature; however, due to the nature of the Minimizer program, such a thing was almost impossible to genuinely recreate in real life.

"Join the club," Kelly told him. "I get guys begging me to swallow them all the time. I guess they like the idea of being food for a big girl like me."

"Hey, I got a question," Mitch said, before shooting a crafty side glance at Troy.

Troy knew what he was about to ask, but decided to keep his mouth shut about it and simply listen.

"What do you think about crushing guys?" he asked.

"You want me to crush you?" Kelly's voice carried an air of revulsion.

"Oh, not at all! Let's just say that I'm asking for a friend."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. I think crush is a waste. Why would anyone smush their food? It's also pretty nasty. I mean, you see their guts and brains and everything bust out. Euuugh..." She shivered.

"Oh, how sad." Mitch said, completely insincere about it. Troy knew that he was doing this to mock him. However, Troy was not too shaken up by her response, perhaps because he had already gotten used to hearing the same from many other women, or because he wasn't particularly attracted to her.

"Tell your friend that he should get off the floor and get onto a plate," Kelly said. "I'll take care of him."

Mitch made an "A-OK" gesture with his thumb and index finger. "Will do, my voluptuous titan."

Kelly grinned. "Good. Now, it's time for you to go back in my belly."

Mitch responded with a grin of his own. "Awesome. Go right ahead."

With that, she pulled the tiny, eager man closer to her mouth. Troy watched, nearly tempted to turn away and focus elsewhere, as her tongue reached out and began to lick every inch of the tiny man's body. He laughed as the wet appendage slathered his arms, his legs and feet, his chest, and his face.  She turned him slightly and began to lap his backside as well before going back to his front.

After a minute of repeating those actions, she then brought the man closer and closer to her open maw, until Mitch and the tips of her fingers were completely inside. Placing him onto her tongue, her hand withdrew, after which she closed her mouth. Troy could see her cheeks bulge somewhat on each side, a sign that her tongue was currently giving the inhabitant inside a rather turbulent ride. Troy could easily picture what Mitch was currently going through; after all, Dorothy had done the same to him on a few occasions when they were together.

Before long, Kelly gulped, and with that, Mitch was gone, on his way back to being digested again inside of the pudgy young woman's stomach. Since Mitch liked to have his Numbing feature set to Low-Medium, Troy could only imagine the pain that he would be feeling as Kelly's stomach acid tore his body apart, though if pain was a deterrent to Mitch, he would have risen the Numbing level higher a long time ago.

Troy still wondered why Mitch insisted that she swallowed him right in Troy's close presence. Such a carnal, perhaps erotic display was best left behind closed doors. Troy guessed that it was either Mitch's way of mocking him that he was able to get any woman to swallow him while Troy had been struggling for the better part of the year trying to find a woman willing to crush him, or it was his way of getting back at him for making him bring home plump women. Perhaps both.

"Alright!" Kelly said. "Now that I've had my power snack, let's get back to Smash!"

"Let's do this," Troy added. "Don't think Greninja can take this for you. He may be OP in the Pokemon games, but in Smash? He's nothing."

"Oh, you're getting cocky, huh? Just wait until after I'm done with you."

"We'll see about that." Troy kind of enjoyed this small rivalry that the two of them had going on.

Both fighters appeared on the battlefield in the game--Marth from a golden warp circle and Greninja from a thrown Poke Ball--as the announcer counted down from three. Upon shouting "GO!", Troy and Kelly's fighters clashed once more.

~~~

The week went by rather quickly. Troy's job took up much of his time, the people in his department still quite busy over the potential banking contract in the works. Troy was constantly on the move, relaying relevant information to his managers, to HR, to the people he was in contact with outside of the organization. Even at his desk, there was constant email being sent and phone calls both being made and received.

His job left little room for free time at the moment.

Finally, the end of his Friday shift arrived. Nearly everything he needed to accomplish that week had been done; the little that was left could afford to wait until the following week. While a handful of people remained longer, most too were heading out of the office for the weekend.

Troy logged off of his desk PC, and then turned it monitor off. He let out a big sigh of relief as he began to pack his belongings into his messenger bag.

"About to head out?" asked a familiar female voice from behind.

Troy looked behind, finding Casey standing at the entrance to his cubicle. She sported a cream-colored ensemble with matching peep-toe pumps. No matter what, it seemed that she always dressed her best.

"Yeah," Troy answered. "This was a really hectic week, but I think things are gonna settle down pretty soon. At least, I hope."

"Yeah, I hear you. Once this deal goes through, we can finally relax a bit and take it slow. Speaking of relaxing, any plans for the weekend."

"Nope," Troy replied. "I'll probably go out with my roommate tomorrow, but other than that, no plans."

She walked inside of the cubicle, stepping closer to Troy. "No dates? I know your last two were disasters, but I hope you haven't given up."

"Of course not. I just haven't found anyone who's said yes to my proposals. At least, not since last week."

"Hmm..." Casey seemed to ponder something over in her mind. "I'll see if I can help out. Some of my friends are still single."

"That'd be cool." Troy smiled at her.

She smiled back. "Alright, it's a plan. Anyway, I wish I could leave now, but I still have stuff that needs to be done." She sighed.

"I can stay and help you if you want," Troy offered.

She shook her head. "Mm-mm. Thanks, but I'll be fine. You go blow off some steam."

"Well, alright."

"Anyway, I better get back to work," she said. "I'll see you on Monday." She briefly touched his shoulder with the palm of her hand before beginning to walk out of the cubicle.

"You have a good weekend," Troy said to her. "And I hope you finally get Heads this time."

She laughed. "I hope so too." In seconds, she turned and walked away, taking her completely out of Troy's sight.

As Troy continued to pack up, he thought over Casey's offer to scout her friends for potential dates for him. Would something come of it? Ever since the incident in the elevator the week before, he and Casey had developed a bit of a rapport with each other, but was a week long enough for her to know what exactly he wanted in a woman? Not just for macro play, but in general.

Deciding that there was no point in wondering about it at his desk, he slung his bag over his shoulder and exited his cubicle.

At least for him, the weekend had officially arrived.

~~~

Later that day, Troy had gotten another surprise: he had received a message from someone on MacroMeet. Though he had started using other websites and apps to meet people, he still logged into the site at least once a day. The profile picture of the person who sent him the message was of an average-looking sandy-haired woman with thick black-framed glasses. She looked to be in her mid-20s, and viewing her profile confirmed her age being 23. Troy looked through the few pictures she had; she was rather thin and flat-chested, and her fashion sense could be best described as "hipster".

Still, it was not like she was ugly, and a message was a message.

He opened it, hoping that it was not another angry demand that he leave the site.

"hey :)"

"Well, now..." Troy was relieved that it was a positive message after all. He typed up a response: "hey, what's up?"

The "online now" icon was next to her profile picture, so Troy decided to stay logged in and await a response.


She responded within minutes, and their conversation eventually moved to the site's chat program. As they chatted with each other, Troy learned a bit more about her: Her name was Jeane, and she was a graphic designer fresh out of college and was still rather new to the city. She wanted to meet new people, and wanted to try out macro play with them. However, she did not have any particular likes or dislikes concerning macro. In fact, she wasn't sure if macro itself would be her thing at all.

Truthfully, Troy felt like her guinea pig.

Still, it was better than getting nothing at all. Plus, if it paid off, perhaps he'd get a new girlfriend out of it.

Though it may have seemed too soon for some, the two set a time and place to meet tomorrow afternoon. They also exchanged phone numbers as well. They talked for a little bit more, before deciding to save the rest for tomorrow. Soon after, he logged off of the site.

Touching the back of his hand, Troy brought up the control panel and looked down at the bottom right corner of its screen. A small meter was displayed there, approximately half of it transparent while the other half filled with a white color. Next to the meter displayed 46%.

No need to recharge the program, Troy observed; not that he expected that he would have to. The vials ordered online came with multiple pills, because over time with repeated uses, the Minimizer program's energy needed to function would eventually run dry. In order to replenish the energy, one would have to take another pill. Luckily for the consumers, the program was set up in a way that they would not be left shrunken and vulnerable if the charge ran out; if their body ran out of energy during the shrinking process, they would shrink as normal, but when they respawn after being killed, they're returned to their normal size instead, being unable to utilize the program until they consume another pill. The same is true if they simply deactivate the program after shrinking.

The intricacies of the program still astonished Troy. The people behind its creation seemed to truly think everything about it out before mass producing it for the public. To think, they could have easily used their knowledge and skill and perhaps sorcery for evil, just as Heather had ranted about. And yet, they instead chose to use it to enrich people's sexual lives, or just to use it to make certain daily tasks easier.

In any case, Troy decided to focus on tomorrow's date.

~~~

It had just passed noon the following day, and Troy was all but prepared to meet up with Jeane. He had showered, brushed his hair and teeth, and freshened himself before donning his attire for the day, consisting of a yellow short-sleeved shirt and grey jeans. He dug underneath his bed, searching for his black and white athletic shoes, when he heard a short tone from his smartphone, set above him on his bed.

After fishing his shoes out, he stood up and picked up the phone. On the screen displayed a text message from Jeane.

"sorry. i know this is last minute but something came up and i have to cancel our date today. :( we can reschedule if you want"

"Ugh..." Troy was utterly disappointed. She did seem quite eager to meet up with him, and he had been looking forward to showing her the ropes in macro play. Much of his day was planned around it, in fact.

On the other hand, perhaps this event in her life was something that she could not help. Additionally, she was still willing to see him, just at a later date. Perhaps it'd be sooner rather than later.

He replied back: "alright. when are you next free?"

He waited for a few minutes for her response, pacing around the room while holding his phone in hand.

Several more minutes passed, and Jeane had still not replied back.

Rather than stand in his room any longer and await her answer, he decided to go out anyway. After all, getting fresh air was better than being cooped up in his room all day, and perhaps he'd meet someone new in the meantime. After putting his shoes on, he packed his Kindle tablet into his messenger bag, slung it over his shoulders, and grabbed his wallet and keys, before walking out of the bedroom.

The apartment was rather quiet, mainly owing to Mitch still being asleep in his room. He had gone out partying the night before and arrived home in a drunken stupor. Troy wondered how he had gotten back, but decided not to pursue the issue. He exited the apartment and then headed for the elevator.

~~~

The sun shined brightly above in the bright blue sky, littered with large puffy clouds that occasionally obstructed the sun. Additionally, there was a slight breeze blowing, though it did little to combat the mid-80s August heat.

Troy sat at a bench in the park, reading through various articles online on his tablet, every so often peeking up to observe his surroundings. The green grass wavered and glistened in the wind, and the branches of the many trees around rattled with the breeze. There were a number of people in the park, young and old. Some were jogging or riding bikes, some were having a picnic or some other outing, and a few had the same idea as he: sitting and reading on their own, either on their phone or tablet or just a simple book.

He checked his phone. He still had not gotten a reply from Jeane. He wondered what the hold-up was, or if she intended to respond back to him at all. He decided to not worry too much about it; she'd either reply back, or he'd move his attention elsewhere.

Troy looked back onto this tablet. Having gotten his fill of reading the news, he decided to check out some of his bookmarked websites. The first on the list: Giantess Town, also known as one of the largest macro-based message boards on the Internet, despite its focus primarily on giant women. He logged into his account and browsed through the various forums for new content, though as he was in public, he was careful to not bring up anything too explicit.

A story that he was following, titled "Virgo Campus" had been updated that morning. He immediately clicked on the thread title and opened the page. Virgo Campus told the story of convicted criminals who, in lieu of a prison sentence due to overcrowding prisons, accept an offer to take part in an experiment. Said experiment involves shrinking them down and placing them onto a campus of an all-female University. The purpose was to observe how the student and faculty body interacted with their tiny coinhabitants, with little to no regard to the safety of the convicts at all.

Of course, Troy was not following this story just because of its plot. Perhaps the main draw to him was how some of the students treated the tiny convicts, particularly those of the sole sorority on campus. The head student delighted in destroying the lives of the tinies underfoot, and at one point even held a party in which she and her associates gathered as many convicts as they could only to have a competition to see who could crush the most. It could be quite brutal at times, but they were not without opposition. The main character, a young male convict who murdered his abusive parents, and a shy female student he befriended, are both working to try to bring an end to the murderous sorority.

The newest chapter involved the main character meeting up with his own tiny allies to plan a way to free the men trapped inside of the sorority house. Meanwhile, the heroine managed to sneak into the basement of the science building to try to learn more about the shrinking project that had been enacted countrywide.

The enthralling plotline, among other aspects, kept Troy hooked, to the point that he almost entirely ignored his surroundings.

In fact, when he finally decided to take a brief break and take his eyes off of the tablet, he was surprised to find someone sitting beside him on the bench.

"Whoa!" He nearly jumped from his seat. The person, a young Black woman with her black hair tied into a ponytail behind her head, shifted her attention from her phone and turned towards him.

"It's about time you noticed me here," she said, a hint of a smile upon her face.

"How long have you been here?" Troy asked, in the process of recollecting his bearings.

"Maybe five minutes," she answered.

"Wow... Usually I notice when people sit down next to me, but I guess I was so into... this that I didn't see you."

"Whatchu readin', anyway?"

"Oh..." Troy did not see it wise to tell her the truth. "Just a research paper. On the planet Pluto."

"Oh, right. Because that spaceship or whatever finally took pictures of it. I'm not really into that space stuff. If it ain't got nothin' to do with Earth, I don't care."

"That's too bad," Troy said. "At some point, we're gonna have to move off Earth and live somewhere else."

"That won't be until after I'm dead and buried, though," she said in an nonchalant manner.

Troy shrugged. "True. Anyway, you come here often?"

She nodded. "Mm-hm. Every Saturday. It's good to get out and get some fresh air. And to get away from my sister and nephew."

"Yeah, I can relate," Troy said. "I have a roommate that drives me insane sometimes. He's a cool guy, but I can't wait until I'm able to live on my own."

"Amen to that!" She laughed, as did Troy. "Anyway, I'm Shaniece."

"Troy," he introduced himself. "That is, my name is Troy."

Shaniece laughed again. "Yeah, I got that."

'Indeed, I did meet someone new,' Troy thought to himself. Shaniece was an attractive young lady; Troy estimated that she was a bit younger than he was. She donned a white shirt with extremely short sleeves, denim capri pants, and light blue flip-flops, exposing her toes and the black polish upon each of their nails. He guessed that they were around a size six or seven. They were not too shabby; he could already imagine himself being at their mercy, or just playing around with them.

Now, if only everything played out in his favor.

"Anyway," she said, "Yeah, I come here every Saturday I can. It's nice an' quiet most of the time, and I meet some int'restin' people sometimes too."

"Like me?" Troy joked.

"Ha! Maybe. But this is where I usually sit, so I was gonna sit here anyway if there was room. But at least you ain't a creepy old nigga. Ain't no way I wanna deal with them."

'Her manner of speech could use a bit of work, though,' Troy's inner monologue noted. 'Though I guess it ain't too much of a pro- isn't too much of a problem. I can tell she'd have a great attitude as a giantess'

"I understand," Troy said. "What lady would want to be near a creep like that?"

"Also," she continued, "I like lookin' at some of the people here. Some of the people here don't be wearing nothin' at all. Like fat dudes with no shirt on. ...Or those White girls there."

She drew Troy's attention towards a duo of buxom young blond women approaching their direction on the concrete path in front of the bench while conversing with each other. Both women wore short tanktops that exposed their navels upon their toned chests, short shorts, and flip-flops. They were showing a significant amount of skin, and they had drawn the attention of many eyes as they passed by.

"Look at that," Shaniece whispered to Troy, disdain in her tone of voice. "Ain't even hot enough for them to be dressed like that. Don't those bitches need to put some clothes on?"

"Yes, they do," Troy spoke. 'No, they don't,' his mind instead thought.

Both Troy and Shaniece watched them as they both walked by. While Shaniece's eyes bore obvious disgust in them, Troy instead found himself captivated by them and, as they passed by, their feet. Of course, he could not help but glance at them as they walked in front of them. Both of them had approximately the same shoe size, and they both had painted their nails the same shade of bright pink. Both ladies' feet were beautiful, Troy concluded.

What Troy would give to be squished underneath one of them, or perhaps even both women at once. He was already picturing it in his mind, even as they departed, and he could feel the blood rushing to his crotch.

"I don't get why they have to dress like that," Shaniece said, still watching them. "What, you don't already get enough attention? You young, White, blonde, and got big titties. I bet guys be all over you all the time."

"Can't say I blame them, honestly," Troy said, his eyes lingering upon their buttocks swaying from side-to-side before focusing back on Shaniece. "But I do prefer girls to have some more modesty. That is a bit too much."

"Mm-hm. Anyway, forget them." Shaniece turned to Troy. "Let's talk about you." She moved a bit closer to him. "What do you do?"

"Like... For fun or for a living?"

"Both."

"Oh. Well, I work in the Ward Building downtown. I'm a technical-" Past Shaniece, he saw a dark tiny figure rush from the grass on the side of the path and scurry towards the feet of the blond women the two had been talking about.

It was clear that it was a shrunken person.

"Aw shit..." Troy pointed towards the two blond women, and Shaniece turned towards them.

The woman on the right had no idea. She continued to walk, oblivious to the fact that a tiny person was on the ground right in front of her, waiting for her to put her foot down upon him.

Which she did.

Her foot hit the ground, completely obliterating the insignificant man beneath its flip-flop in the process.

She let out a shocked cry, and took a step back. Both she and her friend looked down at the pavement, towards the red splatter on the ground before them. "Oh my god!" one of them exclaimed. The one who stepped on him lifted and turned the sole of her foot towards her, examining the crimson remains plastered upon her sandal. Troy could hear the anger and disgust in their voices as they spoke with each other, and the spectacle was garnering the attention of other people in the area.

While Troy could not forgive the tiny guy for tricking an unwitting woman into crushing him underfoot--especially seeing as he more than likely will respawn back in his house, more than likely avoiding any punishment--Troy could not help but become turned on by seeing the woman's pretty foot so easily rend a life asunder underneath it. Especially as he had wished before that it would be him meeting his many ends underneath it.

Though perhaps there was hope that Shaniece would play the part of his new giantess and crusher.

"That's crazy," Troy finally spoke, after watching the two women recover from the man's murder. "How long was he there? I didn't see him shrink of anything."

"Me neither," Shaniece said. "He musta been waitin' there for a long time. All to get someone to step on him."

"That's actually the second time in the past month I've seen some guy pull something like this," Troy added, referring to the incident in the grocery store weeks before. "Though that guy wasn't as lucky. No one granted his wish."

"Mm-mm-mm..." Shaniece tsked with a disapproving shake of her head. "That's why I don't mess with those shrinkin' people. I mean, what? They gon expect me to squish them like that? They get off on being killed? That's just trifflin'."

"Even if it's the most handsome guy in the world?" Troy asked.

"I'd throw his ass to the curb, too," she sternly responded.

'...And that's the end of that,' Troy's inner monologue groaned. Needless to say, he was disappointed that she had no interest of even entertaining the thought of macro play. She was a good-looking young woman, and while he felt that her personality was rather... "colorful", he was perfectly willing to overlook it if she ended up being receptive to his kinks. It did not seem that that would be the case, sadly.

"Anyway," she said as she stood up, "I think we should get outta here. I haven't eaten nothing all day."

'"We"?' Troy thought. It seemed that she still had in interest in him. Of course, because she had no idea that he was one of those "shrinkin' people" that she disliked. On one hand, he did not see a point in entertaining her any further, since it ultimately would not work out between them.

On the other hand, he was hungry, having not consumed anything either. He had been saving his mealtime for his date with Jeane, but that obviously had been a bust. He had nothing else to do, and he figured that just talking with her couldn't hurt, though he'd have to think of an escape plan if she became too interested in him.

"Alright, let's go," Troy said, tucking his tablet into his bag and then standing up as well. "I'm actually pretty hungry, too. There's a Subway nearby, so we can stop and chat some more there."

Shaniece smiled. "Cool."

Both of them departed from the park, leaving behind them the commotion of the tiny man crushed by the young blonde's lovely foot. As they walked and talked, Troy took occasional quick glances at Shaniece's own feet, nicely clad in their own pair of flip-flops as the black polish on their nails shined in the light. As he had noted before, they looked quite good. Though not as good as either of the blond women's from earlier, but it was clear that she took care of them. Troy would have loved to have been squashed to goo underneath them. Many, many times. Or frolick around between her toes or at least have them in his mouth.

'It really is a shame...' Troy's inner thoughts moaned.

~~~

"So, that was your day, huh?" Mitch asked, sitting on the couch in their apartment's living room, the light of the sunset outside coating the place with an amber glow.

"Yep," Troy responded, he himself sitting in the nearby loveseat. "We went out to eat and talked some more there. It actually wasn't that bad, but things started to go south once I said that Tyler Perry was a hack."

"You seriously told her that?" Mitch sounded rather baffled.

"She asked if I liked his stuff, and I said no. I could tell she was angry about that. You know Black women love them some Tyler Perry. ...But that wasn't the dealbreaker for her."

"Oh, really? What did it?"

Troy took a small sip of the cool bottle of Pepsi that he had in his hand. "She asked me what church I go to. I told her that I didn't go to church, nor did I have an interest in religion."

"How'd she take that?" Mitch asked.

"She tried to preach me God's word, but I told her that I wasn't interested. ...As crude as she was in the park, she actually handled it pretty well. She just said that she'd pray for me and we said our goodbyes. I could tell that she was disappointed that I wasn't 'the one' for her, especially after I told her about my job."

Mitch chuckled. "Man, you really have bad luck. You get stood up by one girl, and the other girl has no interest in macro and is incompatible in every other way."

"Jeane didn't stand me up," Troy corrected. However, he still had not heard back from her in the hours since his outing with Shaniece.

"If you say so." Mitch was unconvinced.

"But on Shaniece, yeah." He took another sip from the bottle. "That's what makes dating Black women difficult for me. Most of them are religious, but I'm not. They can't fathom that a Black man wouldn't be a 'man of God', and for them, that's an immediate dealbreaker."

"I probably don't need to ask," Mitch said, "but did... what's her name? Shaniece? Yeah, did she have nice enough feet for you?"

"Yep. That's what made it worse. Ah well..." Troy shrugged, focusing his attention upon the TV in the room, its screen displaying an old action film currently airing.

After several seconds of silence, Mitch spoke, "So, I guess you don't have any plans for tonight, then?"

"Nope. Why?"

"Because I think you should come with me to a party some friends of mine are throwing tonight," Mitch answered.

"What kind of party?" Troy asked.

Mitch leaned forward, an eager smile formed on his face. "A macro party."

"Whoa, really?!" Troy was rather surprised. He had read about macro parties online, in which a group of men and women would get together and hold a mass macro play session with each other, usually with all of the men shrinking down. Troy had never gotten the opportunity to attend one before, and he was rather interested in this one that Mitch's friends were hosting.

However, before he got too excited, Troy also had to realize just whose mouth this information was coming from.

"Wait," Troy said. "You say 'macro party', but is it really just a vore party?"

Mitch threw his hands up. "Alright, you caught me. But I still think you should come. Better than being in here all night."

"I'll pass," Troy answered.

"Oh, come on, dude! You could meet some new friends, and who knows? You could like being swallowed by some of the hotties that are gonna be there."

"No, Mitch."

"Please?" Mitch begged. "I'll be your wingman."

"No." Troy repeated.

Mitch sighed. "Alright, then. There's only one way to settle this." He stood up and walked towards the video game consoles on the shelves before them.

"You better not say it..." Troy warned.

Mitch picked up one of the controllers for the Wii U console. "That's right! We're going to SETTLE IT IN SMASH!!!" He announced in a robustious tone, before tossing the controller into Troy's lap.

Troy sighed. "Dammit, Mitch. I beat your ass the other day. What makes you think I won't again this time?"

"I've been training," Mitch confidently answered. "Alright, I'll sweeten the deal. If you win, then not only will you not have to go, but I'll go out with three more fat chicks."

"Addendum," Troy added. "I have to pick them out. The girl you had last time wasn't fat enough."

Mitch groaned. "Fine. Let's go."

After powering on the console and putting the Super Smash Bros. For Wii U game disk inside, Troy and Mitch took their places on the couch. Troy was determined to avoid this "macro party" at all costs. After all, it wasn't a true macro party; the term had been appropriated by what he considered to be "vore-posers" who were not actually real macrophiles. He knew that Mitch was a true macrophile, but he wondered if he knew that most of the people he associated with--male and female (especially the females)--had no real interest in macrophilia and were only going along with it because of Vince Vane. Or if he even cared as long as they swallowed him?

"The winner is best out of five," Mitch stated.

Both he and Mitch picked their characters--Troy picking his trusted Marth, while Mitch as expected went with the ninja-like Sheik--and after their character appeared on the battlefield, the two young men went at it, their thumbs working their hardest to keep up with each other and overpower one another.

It was a close set of matches.

However, in the end, it was Mitch who took the set. He stood up and proudly raised his arms high into the air, his controller still in one of his hands, as he let out a victory cry.

"...Goddammit..." Troy uttered miserably.



[TO BE CONTINUED]